He wiped the dust off and read aloud:
His heart sank. He’d bought the decoder three days ago from a shop in Kamwala, but never activated it. Now, kickoff was in 40 minutes. how to activate topstar decoder zambia
Mr. Banda kept refreshing the decoder by unplugging it for 10 seconds and plugging it back in. After 5 minutes, nothing. After 10 minutes, nothing. Kofi started crying. He wiped the dust off and read aloud: His heart sank
At minute 14, the screen flickered. The blue screen vanished. Suddenly, the ZESCO United team was jogging onto the pitch, the crowd singing. After 10 minutes, nothing
“Yebo!” Mr. Banda shouted. They’d made it with one minute to spare.
TopStar uses a system called , powered by Zambian mobile money. Mr. Banda had an Airtel line. He dialled *115# and selected “Buy Airtime,” loading K30 onto his phone. But the activation fee was K80. He called his neighbour, Mrs. Chilufya, who sent him K50 via MTN Mobile Money. Within two minutes, his mobile wallet had K80.
“Kofi, where’s the box?” Mr. Banda shouted.