THE Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA) has in the 2012 Budget set aside K10 billion for the development and implementation of a comprehensive National Addressing System in the country.

In July this year, ZICTA embarked on the development and implementation of a comprehensive national addressing system in Zambia called the national addressing and Postcode project.

This will be a means of identifying a location that enables people to reach it as well as goods and services to be delivered to that location which could be either a home, shop, factory or any business.

ZICTA director general Margaret Mudenda said in an interview at the weekend that the process of developing and implementing the national addressing system had reached an advanced stage.

Mrs Mudenda said the K10 billion was for the implementation of phase one project for Lusaka and Livingstone.

Out of the K10 billion, K103 million would be used to buy the major components and software that the authority needed to be able to collect data.

She said for Livingstone, all ground work has been done and that ZICTA has just completed the procurement processes and the supplier for the materials which would be used has since been identified.

She said that her organisation had meetings and discussions with people in Chief Mukuni's area and that everybody was on board.

The project which was on-going would be carried out in two phases and was expected to be completed in five to 10 years considering that the authority wanted to number all housing units within the country both that are existing and those to be built.