The high-level international conference on Connecting Rural Communities in Africa brings about thirty Information and Communication Technologies ministers, experts, regulators and operators from Africa, Middle and Europe will discuss strategies, business models and technology policies for bridging the digital divide.
If what Information and civic education minister said is anything to go by, majority of Malawians (about 80 percent like in the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa) are not reaping any fruits of being part of a modern information society where telecommunications drive the lifestyles.
Kaliati told journalists that the government is committed to lifting up the lives of Malawians in rural areas by providing necessary telecommunications infrastructure and services.
For instance she said that government has introduced tele-centres in a few rural areas in Mangochi, Mwanza and Thyolo with Chikwawa and Karonga on the cards. Government deserves praise for embarking on such an ambitious project of connecting rural areas.
Unlike the tines of one party regime, the government is encouraging development of telecommunication infrastructure to a level where Malawi is no longer a country with the least telephone penetration in Africa. The growing numbers of both fixed and mobile phone operators and subscribers tells a story of some progress.
However the challenges to realise this desire or dream are many. Commentators, Internet service providers (ISPs), operators and scholars have argued times without number that Malawi’s telecommunications is still very underdeveloped let alone heavily very expensive.
This raises many questions as to whether the government’s desire to connect rural areas is any serious business as desired by the government. If urban areas are struggling to fully connect, could rural areas in Malawi really make a difference and be seen as a realistic development?
In urban areas, most people who claim to use the Internet depend institutional access. Thankfully MTL’s LibertyNet now has a few who can afford the Internet service from their homes. There are various factors that seem to impinge on developing an information-driven society and telecommunications in a country like Malawi.
It would be important for the stakeholders and especially the government to seriously and deliberately remove the current obstacles to developments in the Information and Communication Technologies.
National ICT Policy
To begin with the country has to date not approved a national ICT policy in spite of the fact it was developed five years ago. Kaliati admitted that there have been problems with the proposal so far but promised that the cabinet will “soon” approve it.
A national ICT policy is a guiding document for the development of ICTs in the country and one wonders how serious government is to embark for instance on a rural connectivity yet it has not approved the policy.
A national policy would help cement the ongoing country’s commitment to universal access but why is there still a delay on the national ICT policy? As part of the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) framework, Malawi was expected to develop its national information and communication infrastructure (NICI) policy as early as 1999 alongside other early developers on the continent.
However progress has been slow as “Malawi is not fully following NICI as such, but has adopted some guidance from that document” said one official from National College of Information Technology (NACIT) but refused to be named.
National Coordinator of the ISP, SDNP Dr Paulos Nyirenda describes lack of government policy on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a major legal challenge as it affects them when they come across some policy problems they did not expect.
Quoted in an academic study on the Internet as a Journalistic Tool, Nyirenda said that for example “VOIP in Malawi is said to be illegal but the situation is a little bit hazy and the lack of policy that covers Internet use in Malawi is major problem and this affects not just ISPs but radio stations.”
However it has to be appreciated that the government has the Malawi ICT4D Policy which is the “Policy Statement for the Realization of the Aspirations of the Vision 2020 through the Development, Deployment and Exploitation of ICTs within the Economy and Society (Republic of Malawi, 2003).
In my view, it is this policy that is accommodating initiatives like the telecentres but the government could have treated the National ICT policy with urgency also as is crucial for many aspects of the development of ICTs in the country.
In spite of an apparent lack of an ICT policy, Malawi's commitment to WSIS Plan of Action shows that some progress is being made.
Speaking during the WSIS 2005 in Tunis, Minister of Information Patricia Kaliati pointed out that the country had integrated ICT into the development strategies through formulation of National ICT and Rural Telecommunications for Development Policies.
She explained that the “communication sector is fully liberalized, duty on computers and computer peripherals has been removed” adding that “Radio and television are the most basic, affordable and simpler form of ICTs accessed by many Malawians. Computers and internet access are covering limited part of the country.”
Costly Connectivity Service
It is common knowledge that access to and utilization of ICTs in Malawi is very expensive. For instance anyone who goes to an Internet café bears witness to the high rates and fees by ISPs. In a study involving radio journalists in Malawi, journalists stated that the Internet “is expensive”, “not accessible in rural areas” and connectivity itself “poor”.
The Malawi ICT4D Policy document also acknowledges that Malawi has “limited and under-developed infrastructure including those of telecommunications, communications, power, and transport infrastructure which are areas of fundamental importance to socio-economic development.”
The ISPs in Malawi just like others in developing countries bear huge costs in operating outward and incoming traffic. An Internet and Telecom Consultant Mike Jensen says that the ISPs in Africa bear a big burden of connecting their customers as they “pay high tariffs” (Jensen 2005) and “communication charges are often 10 - 100 times more expensive than developed countries.”
These costs are borne by the end user and Malawians are not exempted. Could the government create an environment where Internet rates in both and rural areas are far below the current huge rates which are above the global averages?
Poor Technical Infrastructure
So far Internet is said to be available only in urban areas where there is adequate power supply and telephone lines for dial-up Internet connection. Some respondents complained about the persistent power failures, which affect computer and Internet facilities.
Like what one journalist wrote, “blackouts, freezing of computers and disconnections by Internet providers” Internet infrastructure becomes a limiting factor in radio stations.
Obviously heavy investment is needed if the rural areas are to be part of the information highway and let the rural people benefit from universal access provisions.
One German group was right in observing that many developing countries (including Malawi) “do not possess the technical infrastructure” to sustain ICTs – “not even at the most basic level of having electricity.” With our constant problems with power failure in urban areas, would the rural connectivity project survive in these telecentres?
Inadequate Knowledge in using ICTs
People may access to computers and Internet but lack of knowledge in using the tools like the Internet may defeat the very purpose for its availability. It is yet to be seen how the rural Malawians in the targeted projected areas will be equipped with knowledge.
ICT personnel from credible institutions is said to be equally expensive and employers face high turnover. Some institutions with functional websites have problems with updating. Probably the one of the sad scenes is our own official Malawi government website (www.malawi.gov.mw) whose design, layout and updating leaves a lot to be desired. Fortunately the Minister of Information and Civic Education promises an improvement. If the whole government websites seems to suffer in this way, would the rural centres be ably resourced human-wise?
I found something interesting about the German group’s view (as referred above) which stated that in many countries, there is what they call “Illectronisme” a French term meaning that people are “electronically illiterate”. It is obvious that “unless the users are literate…, their use of the Internet is seriously limited.” Apart from developing rural areas, it may help if government made progress on electronic literacy in urban areas to begin with.
Will the dream be realised?According to United Nations E-Government Knowledge base, Malawi's country e-readiness has been getting worse from a global position of 137 in 2005 to 146 in 2007. The reasons for this status may be complex but some of the issues highlighted here may tell the story.
The rural people in Malawi just like their counterparts in urban areas need connectivity and one for real. In this globalising world, no country would want to have its citizens outside the information highway.
As the situation is today, the country is a laughing stock as our connectivity is not adequate, hence majority of the country is not benefiting from the modern information and communication technologies thereby still remaining on that side of the digital divide.
If the government is to realise the dream of connecting rural areas in Malawi, more commitments and urgency on several issues may help to make the rural connectivity a reality. Otherwise it remains a dream.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Victor Kaonga
Quelle/Source: Nyasa Times, 27.08.2008
