ICT
Policy
There is no ICT
policy at present. But the policy is currently under development with the assistance of
the Economic Commission for Africa. There is a National IT Committee which is overseeing
the development.
Telecommunications
Structure and Policy
A Communications Act (Act no.1 of
1998) was passed by Parliament on 30th November 1998 and the Presidential
consent was duly given on 30th December 1998. As a result a Communications
Policy Statement was issued outlining the national policy for the development of
the country's Communications Sector, covering broadcasting (both radio and television),
telecommunications and postal services. In May 1999, the first Board of the Malawi
Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) was appointed in accordance with the
Communications Act, making the beginning of the liberalization of the Communications
Sector and birth of the Authority. The telecommunications sector is regulated by the Malawi
Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA), under the Ministry of Information, Posts and
Telecommunications. It became
operational in March 2000.
The public operator is the Malawi
Telecommunications Ltd (MTL). But Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority
(MACRA) is considering issuing a license to a second fixed line operator.
The Malawi Communications
Regulatory Authority (MACRA) has developed telecommunications and radio licences. It has
also licences to two mobile operators, fifteen ISPs, one fixed network operator, several
PMRs and seven VSATs. Currently it is developing a Rural Telecommunication Policy.
With loans from Kuwait
Fund for Arab Economic Development, MPTC has set up to improve the
telecommunication services in the town of Thyolo and Ngabu and their surrounding areas in
the southern region of the country and to meet the increasing demand for telephone
services until 2007.
Components of the
Project:
The project consists of the
supply, installation, testing and commissioning of digital exchanges and remote switching
units, transmission systems inter-connecting these exchanges and outside cable plant, as
well as spares and instrumentation. The project also includes civil works, buildings,
vehicles and training.
Cost of the Project:
The total cost of the project is
estimated at Kuwasha 184.5 million (KD 3.7 million) of which Kuwasha 157.2 million (KD
3.11 million) is in foreign exchange. The Fund's loan is equivalent to 81.1% of the total
project cost, and covers 96.8% of its foreign exchange component.
Cellular (Mobile) phone
network
There are two cellular mobile
operators in Malawi with over 49,000 subscribers:
Telekom Networks of Malawi
(TNM) operated by Telekom Malaysia is the GSM cellular network
operator in Malawi established in 1995. The shareholders are Telekom Malaysia (60%) and
MPTC (40%). The company has five-year licence (until 2000) with the option to renew, and
it covers Blantyre, Mzuzu, Lilongwe and Zomba, with plans to expand to the lake Malawi
region and Mogotse.TNM is working to establish roaming with UK, South Africa and Indian
sub-continent. TNM's infrastructure was supplied by Alcatel. TNM is registered to X.25
data service, however its potential customers have withdrawn their applications for
service because the system is expected to run on a leased line from MPTC. TNM is planning
to implement an alternative radio-based modern technology but a licence has not yet been
issued by MPTC.
Celtel Malawi is
the second GSM operator launched in September 1999 as joint venture partnership between
MSI and Malawi Development Corporation. It presently covers Lilongwe, Mzuzu, Mangochi and
Blantyre. There were over 6000 customers by the end of 1999.
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ICT
Networking Development
The University of Malawi operates
UNIMA, a nation-wide publicly accessible FidoNet computer network.
Store-and-forward e-mail and file transfer access to the Internet are achieved by batched
connections through a gateway in South Africa. Other Internet access, such as file search
(Archie, etc.), file transfer (FTP), and Gopher are available using e-mail access to the
Internet. Many users currently use these facilities to locate and get files from servers
on the Internet and other networks linked to the Internet and FidoNet. UNIMA
uses the public telephone infrastructure for FidoNet and Internet access. Users on the
network must dial into the UNIMA node in Zomba to send, receive, and exchange mail. There
are three telephone calls per day from the Southern Africa NGO network (SANGONET) gateway
in Johannesburg. These provide the main international Internet access for users on UNIMA
The HealthNet node
in Malawi is based at the College of Medicine in Blantyre, and uses FidoNet technology.
There are over 68 HealthNet users in Malawi, including users at the College of Medicine,
the Ministry of Health, WHO, and others.
- Epsilon and Omeg
a is a
professional Information Technology and Engineering Management Consulting firm established
in 1990 in Malawi. Epsilon & Omega provides professional support, corporate-tailored
training and consulting services and it has set up in 1995 a commercial e-mail
service in Malawi. Up until June 1997, E&O was the only commercial e-mail service
provider operating in Malawi. The firm has also been involved in the promotion of the use
of e-mail by indigenous Malawians and has facilitated this by providing
"walk-in" email accounts (often referred to as "telecenters") to
clients with no computers, modems or telephone line access. Provision of e-mail is done
via a FidoNet backbone with SANGONet in South Africa as its providers and Internet
connectivity through the new Malawi Net Limited.
An informal group called the
Internet Support Group (ISG) was established to increase the awareness of the
society on the benefits of Internet. The coordination of ISG is undertaken by the Malawi
Investment Promotion Agency in Lilongwe.
A National Information and
Communication Technologies Policy Workshop was held from 16-17 September 1999.
The workshop sponsored by ECA was attended by over 50 participants from the public and
private sectors. Papers were presented on key issues related to information and
communmication technologies, namely:
- Communications sector policy and
economic development in Malawi;
- Access to information and
communications technologies - challeneges and policy issues to Malawi;
- Policy on connectivity and
government data network;
- The development of electronic money
in Malawi;
- National training policy;
- Policy on training for information
and communication technology and content;
- Malawi's statistics act;
- Malawi's media policy.
Break-out sessions were carried out
to discuss issues related telecommunications insfrastructure and connectivity, ICT human
resource development, and information policy and content development. At the end of the
sessions, the workshop participants adopted the following sets of recommendations:
- There is an urgent need for an
effective working Task Force to review information sources, content and standards to
establish a comprehensive National Information and Communication Technology Policy as
follows:
- The Task Force should be composed of
representative of the key sectors of the Information and Communication Industry including:
- Telecommunications
- Libraries
- Publishers Association of Malawi
- Fine Arts Association
- Video and Cinematography Industry
- Internet Service Providers
- Media Council of Malawi
- Journalist Association of Malawi
- Polytechnic
- Censorship Board
- Data Processing Department
- Part of the terms of reference of
the Task Force would be to examine the issue of human resource development and interface
among sectors and to draw up Information and Communication Technology training standards.
- Task force would review the overall
national Information Communication Technology policy process and examine the strategies
and enforcement measures.
- The Task Force would develop a
strategy for a national information network using the Internet
based technologies covering sectors such as agriculture, commerce, health and education.
- There is an urgent need to
strengthen training institutions by providing incentives for example reduction of customs
tariffs on Information Communication Technology equipment.
- There is an urgent need for setting
up tele-centres as a means of providing access to Information and Communication services
to rural areas.
- Government should also consider:
- Expanding radio-broadcasting
services to rural areas hitherto not accessed.
- Sourcing computers for use in
schools and tertiary education institutions.
- Developing content in Chichewa and
other local languages.
PROJECTS
The Government
should consider the following projects for elaboration and implementation:
- Putting in place and implementing a
National Task Force of Information Communication Technology
- Development of a National
Information Communication Technology Applications Network
- Establishment of pilot tele-centres
- Setting up of an Advanced
Information Communication Technology Training/Research/Development Centre.
- Expansion of public radio
broadcasting.
- Introduction of Virtual
Distance Learning Centres.
- Building awareness on
Information and Communication Technologies at national level.
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ICT Partners and Projects
Government is committed to
joining the digital age at a speed that will ensure maximum utilisation of the information
age. At present there are several projects on ICT infrastructure, the most notable are
M-Streams, Malswitch, Sustainable Development Network Program, and the Malawi Government
Wide Area Network. There are also software development projects aimed at improving public
funds accountability and transparency namely, Financial Management Information System for
central government, Financial Management Information System for district assemblies, and
human resources management information system for the central government. There is also
interest to carry out the following projects depending on availability of technical and
financial resources.
Projects to be considered
for elaboration and implementation:
- Institutional Capacity
strengthening of the Department of Information Systems and Technology Management Services
- Establishment of pilot
rural telecentres
- Project to sustain
computers in education
- Project to sustain
computers in health
- ICT Awareness programs
- ICT human resources
development project
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