MACRA Director General Daud Suleman
* The project was first introduced in the country 10 years ago but some agents thought MACRA was intending to install spying machine
* We are going to follow the Directors of Agents wherever they are —Bahamas, Las Vegas — we will find them in order for us to collect the said amount
By Tione Andsen, MANA
Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) has bemoaned that court disputes over the implementation of Revenue Assurance System (RAS) costed the authority US$20 million.
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At a press briefing in Lilongwe on the RAS implementation, MACRA Director General, Daud Suleman said the project was first introduced in the country 10 years ago but some agents thought MACRA was intending to install spying machine.
He said MACRA went through courts of arbitration where it was awarded US$7 million and throughout the court disputes over the RAS project made them to lose over US$20 million.
“We are going to follow the Directors of Agents wherever they are —Bahamas, Las Vegas — we will find them in order for us to collect the said amount,” Suleman hinted, while emphasising that in this new digital world, MACRA could not dare to install spying machines for its operators and this could result into massive pull out of business in the communication sector.
“We have invested US$6 million to implement the project within two years and this has been done in very transparent and professional manner.”
He added that the RAS project would help his organisation to have collect data on how mobile and data operator are generating their revenues and remit the required percentage to MACRA.
Suleman added the issue of call drops was difficult to handle with the mobile operator but MACRA was not able to have backing evidence before them, saying with the RAS installation, the Authority “will be able to have back proof of call drops where customers are being charged while their call drops”.
“This milestone could not have been achieved without the exemplary cooperation between MACRA, all operators, and other stakeholders involved in the project,” he said, adding that MACRA was requiring each operator to provide historical data for the financial fiscal year spanning from April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023.
Suleman pointed out that this data was crucial for their records and regulatory procedures, saying: “We are expecting to be fully provided by no latter than July 31, 2024.”
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While appealing to any operator having problems with the initiative not hesitate to engage MACRA directly, Suleman said they are anticipating continued engagements and support to foster excellence within the digital ecosystem.
Meanwhile, Suleman also said over 13.5 million sim cards are registered in the country with 1.8 million people using smart phones and that this
should be taken into account that some Malawians have more than two sim cards that they are using for various reasons.
Suleman said it was estimated that over 11 million sim cards are used in ordinary phone and this brings an opportunity for them to migrate into smart phone usage as “they will be looking forward to consume new products through their gadgets and the same time expanding the market base”.
Over 3 million people are registered to have mobiles phones out of 20 million and assumed that the remaining 17 million would soon or later need to have their phones.
He said data operators still have potential in making sure that their services are affordable to local Malawians if they are to widen their business avenues.
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