Zambia has achieved a milestone in Africa by being the first country to successfully acquire 500, 000 decoders for digital migration.

That's according to the country's Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services Kampamba Mulenga, who added that 50,000 decoders were sold in one day through the yafika campaign.

Mulenga briefed delegates at the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Minister's meeting on communication and ICT hosted recently in Durban, South Africa.

According to the Minister, these achievements show that Zambia is ready for the switch to digital broadcasting.

She said the Southern African country had made good progress in this regard and was on schedule given that the first phase of the project was completed, with the initial switch over expected next month.

"The achievement has also shown how ready and eager Zambians are to migrate to digital television," Mulenga added.

The Zambian government, through public signal distributor TopStar Communications, has reduced the price of decoders from K199 to K99 to ensure that all households own a decoder kit in time for the analogue switch off.

TopStar CEO Leo Liao confirmed the record sales of decoders in a single day. "Zambia has beaten an Africa record by seeing such a great demand for decoders."

TopStar is a joint venture between the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) and China's StarTimes which has also carried out digital migration projects in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and Tanzania.