Phone Number Verification in Tanzania

Verify a Tanzanian mobile-money subscriber and retrieve the subscriber's name and identity details.

Tanzania phone verification routes through the national interoperability hub, which covers all major mobile-money operators in the country. On success, the response includes the subscriber's full name and, when the hub has it, a identity field containing a 15-digit National Identification Number (NIN).

Prerequisites

You'll need an API key. See Quickstart or Authentication if you don't have one yet.

Note: Verification endpoints use an API key in the X-API-Key header — not a Bearer token.

Make the verification request

Tanzania requires a networkCode to identify the mobile-money operator.

curl -X POST https://api.lira.com/api/v1/verify/phone \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "phoneNumber": "+255621804189",
    "country": "TZ",
    "networkCode": "503"
  }'

Request body fields

Field	Type	Required	Description
`phoneNumber`	string	Yes	Tanzanian phone number in E.164 format (e.g. `+255621804189`) or without the leading `+` (stripped internally).
`country`	string	Yes	Always `TZ`.
`networkCode`	string	Yes	Mobile-money operator code. See the supported operators table below.

Important: networkCode is required for all Tanzania phone verifications. Omitting it will result in a NETWORK_CODE_REQUIRED error.

Supported operators

Operator	`networkCode`
M-PESA (Vodacom Tanzania)	`503`
Airtel Money	`504`
Tigo Pesa / Zantel	`501`
Halotel Money	`HAL`

Read the result

Successful verification

{
  "id": "d4e5f6g7-...-...-...-...",
  "status": "success",
  "verificationType": "PHONE_NUMBER",
  "identifier": "+255621804189",
  "country": "TZ",
  "verifiedAt": "2026-04-08T10:08:00.000Z",
  "verified": true,
  "phoneNumber": "+255621804189",
  "firstName": "Test",
  "lastName": "Shekimweri",
  "fullName": "Test Shekimweri",
  "identity": {
    "idType": "NIN",
    "idValue": "123456789012345"
  }
}

Note: The identity field is returned when the hub has it. The idValue is a 15-digit NIN when present.

Failed verification

{
  "id": "d4e5f6g7-...-...-...-...",
  "status": "failed",
  "verificationType": "PHONE_NUMBER",
  "identifier": "+255621804189",
  "country": "TZ",
  "verifiedAt": "2026-04-08T10:08:00.000Z",
  "verified": false,
  "error": {
    "code": "SUBSCRIBER_NOT_FOUND",
    "message": "No subscriber found for the provided phone number"
  }
}

Note: A 200 OK HTTP response does not mean the verification succeeded. Always check the status field.

Error handling

`error.code`	Cause	Action
`SUBSCRIBER_NOT_FOUND`	Phone number not registered with the operator	Ask the user to verify their number is correct and active
`INVALID_PHONE_NUMBER`	Phone number format is invalid	Validate format (E.164 with or without `+`) before submitting
`INVALID_NETWORK_CODE`	`networkCode` not recognised	Must be one of: `503`, `504`, `501`, `HAL`
`NETWORK_CODE_REQUIRED`	Verification submitted without `networkCode`	Add `networkCode` to the request
`PROVIDER_ERROR`	Upstream system returned an error	Retry with exponential backoff
`PROVIDER_TIMEOUT`	Upstream system timed out	Retry — transient error

For the full error code reference, see Errors.

Next steps

Bank Account in Tanzania — verify Tanzanian bank accounts
Phone Number Overview — general phone verification guide
Errors — complete error code reference

Phone Number in Zambia

Phone Number in Côte d'Ivoire