Malawi one of first in Africa to embrace high-speed satellite internet—Chakwera in his SONA

* Enacted the Data Protection Act, which was signed into law last month to guarantee the safety of personal data

* Suspension of the expiry of National Identity Card between August 2023 and January 2026

* E-payment and revenue collection systems in Government — in short, we are going digital and there is no going back

By Duncan Mlanjira

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, said President Lazarus Chakwera in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Friday.

“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 said. “This has enabled us to use electronic payment and revenue collection systems in Government — in short, Madam Speaker, 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 last month 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.

The country’s education sector has also been afforded the digital space starting from the grassroots primary school to secondary as well as teacher training colleges (TTC).

At primary level, it is being done through collaboration with development partners, notably Republic of Germany, through Voluntary Service Overseas Malawi (VSO) under Unlocking Talent (UT) project — in providing digital equipment (tablets, iPads).

When handing over tablets and iPads for digital learning at Kasiya Primary School in Lilongwe on Saturday, German Ambassador to Malawi, Ute Konig said the Unlocking Talent project has a role to empower children in Malawi to build literacy and numeracy skills needed to achieve their full potential in education.

And as many learners are now able to navigate their lessons through technology, the UT project has reached out to over 170,000 primary school through the provision of the tablets and iPads.

Konig added that the UT e-learning for primary education project was implemented by VSO Malawi in 2019 and has been working with the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the German government —funded by the kreditanstalt fur wiederaufbau (KFW) with over MK30 billion as an investment.

On its part, the Ministry of Information & Digitalisation — through Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) — launched a programme in January to equip 9,000 schools with computer labs across the country in the next five years with 100 targeted for the first year.

The programme also includes investing the same in all teacher training colleges (TTCs) and this is being done in conjunction with the Ministry of Education, which already rolled out a nation-wide Connect-a-School program and 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.