MACRA launches construction of 75 ICT laboratory centres at CDSSs

* Connect-a-School project seeks to build capacity of CDSSs to community ICT centres

* With target of reaching out to over 40,000 students and 250,000 community members to access the centres

By Bishop Witmos, MANA

PMalawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) — through Connect-a-School project — has launched the construction of 75 information & communication technology (ICT) laboratory centres in community day secondary schools (CDSS) across the country.

Connect-a-School project, which is under the Universal Service Fund, is a digital inclusion arm of MACRA and seeks to build capacity of CDSSs to community ICT centres, with target of reaching out to over 40,000 students and 250,000 community members to access the centres.

At the official ground-breaking ceremony of the construction of the centres at Nkope CDSS in Mangochi on Tuesday, head of Universal Service Fund, Ronald Tembo said Connect-a-School project is a flagship project for MACRA in line with national digitalization policy.

“In this project, we have taken a different model where we are working with the community, particularly the artisans who are trained by TEVETA and these are people who will be under management of National Construction Industry Council.

“For us to make access for internet to all, we need a very good internet capacity in the country and MACRA is working on a diplomatic data corridor to introduce Yathu Yathu Data which aims to cover all the rural areas with affordable and reliable internet.”

Tembo further said MACRA was installing technology towers to be spreading both mobile network and broadcasting signals in the unserved communities.

Apart from constructing ICT laboratories in schools, Tembo said MACRA intends to construct a total of 9,000 ICT laboratories in most public institutions, a project which would cost the Authority over K7 billion.

In his remarks, director of science, technology and innovation in the Ministry of Education, Prof. Chomora Mikeka said Connect-a-School project would help to build human capital that would meet the demanded digital labour market.

He said the project was ideal in digital transformation as it would help to transform the country’s economy: “This is a very critical project, as Malawians have demanded that we install an ICT lab in each and every school in order to facilitate education digitalization and digital transformation in the country.

“This is bringing connectivity to schools and this is the way to go towards the MW2063 agenda,” Mikeka said.

Out of 6,954 primary schools in the country, only 140 schools are connected to internet, while out of 1,774 secondary schools, a handful are connected to the internet, according to the Director.

MACRA) launched the Connect-a-School program in January this year which alsoincludes investing the same in all teacher training colleges (TTCs) through Ministry of Education’s Connect-a-TTC.

This is MACRA’s contribution to supplement the education sector under the Universal Service Fund (USF) — which was initiated to promote the adoption of information & communication technology (ICT) services in the rural and underserved areas of the country.

And in not leaving teachers behind, the programme includes providing digital libraries for all TTCs and the initiative was rolled out in Phalombe where a computer lab was set up at Phalombe Secondary School equipped with 20 computers and 15 of them to Phalombe TTC.

The initiative is to provide the teacher students with digital skills in order to be at par with the current generation of youths who are already technologically savvy and the target is to reach out to 11 TTCs across the country.

In his State of the Nation Address (SONA) in February, President Lazarus Chakwera proudly indicated that the most exciting development in Malawi’s digitalization agenda is that the country is one of the first in Africa to embrace high-speed satellite internet.

“As a result, we have met our internet coverage target way ahead of time and our internet data rates are among the cheapest on the continent,” he had said. “This has enabled us to use electronic payment and revenue collection systems in Government — in short, we are going digital and there is no going back.”

The President emphasised that in this digital age it now offers many wealth creation opportunities for young people and pledged that his administration “seeks to facilitate these opportunities by creating a conducive environment for putting them to good use”.

He highlighted his administration achievements in the digital space, that include:

* enactment of the Data Protection Act, which was signed into law in January to guarantee the safety of personal data;

* finalisation of establishing diplomatic data corridors with Tanzania, and Zambia to create dedicated internet data corridors for lowering internet costs in Malawi;

* the signing of commercial agreements with Zambia’s Fibercom and Tanzania Telecommunication Company Limited to reduce international bandwidth rates from US$12-US$5 per Megabyte;

* suspension of the expiry of National Identity Card between August 2023 and January 2026 to increase accessibility and inclusivity to socio-economic services;

* embarking on a mass National ID outreach registrations in all districts and the current total of registration stands at over 11,000,000, and as of last month, National Registration Bureau (NRB) increased printing capacity to 11,000 ID cards per day — a rise from less than 1,000 per day in 2023; and

* the fully integrated national registration system with the systems of the National Economic Empowerment Fund (NEEF), Malawi Revenue Authority’s Msonkho Online, the Malawi Land Information Management System of the Ministry of Lands, the e-Passport, e-Permit, e-Visa system of the Department of Immigration, and the Know-Your-Customer systems for at least five banks.

Meanwhile, a national survey report on access and use of ICT by households and individuals in Malawi for 2023 has revealed that 68% of the people in the country have access to internet through the use of mobile phones and computers.

The survey, which was organized by MACRA and National Statistical Office (NSO) indicates that the percentage of the internet users portrays that people in the country are now aware about the benefits of internet.

At its presentation in Lilongwe, MACRA Director of Economic Regulations, Andrew Nyirenda said: “According to the data presented on the report of the survey, it shows that a lot of people are now using internet and this means that people are now aware that they can find more information on internet, as well as doing other activities such as businesses and school.”

He added that through the information presented in the survey report, MACRA will lobby government to develop policies that would assist to encourage more people in the country to start using internet: “We will make sure that the information gathered through the survey should help us to develop policies that would help to attract more people to start using internet services.

“In other countries, 100% of the population uses internet, but we are on 68%, which means we still have a lot of work which we need to do,” he said, while expressing optimism that the survey results would help MACRA to come up with the way forward that would help to enhance internet usage among individuals in the country.

On his part, NSO Commissioner of Statistics, Shelton Kanyanda said the results of the survey would also help MACRA to improve internet connectivity as well reducing the cost of other ICT services in the country.

“This is very important for our colleagues in the regulatory body as you can see the data is collected up to district level,” he said. “So what we are assuming is that the findings of the survey should be able to improve internet accessibility in different areas where there are challenges.

“They should also be able to reduce prices of other IT services — the cost shows that it is high. It is very important for our colleagues at MACRA to be able to make adjustments by negotiating with service providers.”

He also said NSO is willing and open to support MACRA in conducting research that would promote the use of internet and IT-related services among the people across the country.—Additional reporting by Maravi Express