Phone Number Verification in Zambia

Verify a Zambian mobile phone number and retrieve the subscriber's name.

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

Zambia requires a networkCode to identify the mobile operator. Use lowercase values.

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": "0977000000",
    "country": "ZM",
    "networkCode": "mtn"
  }'

Request body fields

Field	Type	Required	Description
`phoneNumber`	string	Yes	Zambian phone number. Local format (e.g. `0977000000`) or E.164 (e.g. `+260977000000`).
`country`	string	Yes	Always `ZM`.
`networkCode`	string	Yes	Mobile operator. Must be one of: `airtel`, `mtn`, `zamtel`. Use lowercase.
`mode`	string	No	`sync` (default) or `async`. Use `async` to receive the result via webhook.

Important: The networkCode must be lowercase. Sending MTN instead of mtn will result in an error. This differs from Ghana, which uses uppercase network codes.

Supported operators

Operator	`networkCode`
Airtel Zambia	`airtel`
MTN Zambia	`mtn`
Zamtel	`zamtel`

Read the result

Successful verification

{
  "id": "ver_d4e5f6g7-...",
  "status": "success",
  "verificationType": "PHONE_NUMBER",
  "identifier": "0977000000",
  "country": "ZM",
  "verifiedAt": "2026-04-08T10:08:00.000Z",
  "verified": true,
  "phoneNumber": "0977000000",
  "fullName": "Chanda Mwale"
}

Note: Zambia phone verifications return fullName only. Individual name components (firstName, lastName) and dateOfBirth are not available for Zambian numbers.

Failed verification

{
  "id": "ver_d4e5f6g7-...",
  "status": "failed",
  "verificationType": "PHONE_NUMBER",
  "identifier": "0977000000",
  "country": "ZM",
  "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 carrier	Ask the user to verify their number is correct and active
`INVALID_PHONE_NUMBER`	Phone number format is invalid	Validate format (local or E.164) before submitting
`INVALID_NETWORK_CODE`	`networkCode` not recognised	Must be one of: `airtel`, `mtn`, `zamtel` (lowercase)
`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 Zambia — verify Zambian bank accounts
Phone Number Overview — general phone verification guide
Async Verification with Webhooks — receive results via webhook
Errors — complete error code reference

Phone Number in Uganda

Overview