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General Information
Barclays have several large branches in the heart of the
Commercial Centre, Lusaka
Credit cards
Most hotels, restaurants, travel agencies in ad-
dition to the bigger shops will take credit cards.
Most of the bigger banks will advance local cur-
rency against a credit card. Standard Chartered,
Barclays, Zambia National Commercial Bank (ZA-
NACO), and Finance Bank have ATM machines,
which allow visitors to use their Visa card to get a
cash advance.
Value Added Tax
The Value Added Tax in Zambia is 16 percent.
VAT refunds are offered to tourists, who are is-
sued with an export tax invoice (VAT 263) when
purchasing goods, both of which must be pre-
sented at the designated exit points of export for
verification.
Indicative prices
Cost of living in Zambia, and especially in Lusa-
ka can be very expensive if one wants to keep
a westernised lifestyle, as most products are im-
ported.
Meal (high end)
100,000 K
Housing (high end)
1500 USD
Bus fare
3500 K
Driver
800,000 K (monthly)
Maid
500,000 K(monthly)
Bottle of water
1500 K
Bottle of beer
8000 K
Coca Cola
5000 K
Newspaper
3000 K
Taxi from town to Arcades
30,000 K
1 hour in Internet café
15,000 K
COMMUNICATION
Fixed Lines
The only landline telephone operator is Zambia Na-
tional Telecommunication Company (Zamtel). Their
services have been improving over the past years
since they have been privatized. Public telephones
are available in most public buildings such as post
offices, and there are phone and fax services along
Cairo Rd. in Lusaka. International calls can also be
made from a private home or large hotel. (Note the
surcharge at hotels is quite high).
Dialing Code
Direct dialling to Zambia +260 followed by area
codes (found below), plus subscriber’s number.
Direct dialing to neighboring countries requires
four sets of numbers: first the international prefix
00, then the country code, the city code, and the
number.
Regional area codes are:
Lusaka: 0211
Livingstone: 0212
Copperbelt: 0213
Choma: 0232
Chinsali: 0214
Kabwe: 0215
Chipata: 0262
Petauke: 0263
Chama: 0264
Kaoma: 0217
Kasemba: 0218
Rates per minute remains quite high for local calls
(around 200 K per minute) and most public phone
services will charge you up to 2000 per minute for
calls or faxing. Rates are bound to improve in the
years to come as Zambia is developing a fibre optic
network.
In most northern provinces and remote parts of
Zambia, only satellite phones are useable.
103: Local directory assistance