Malawi to Have Booming ICT Services in Rural Areas

APA-Lilongwe (Malawi) Malawi Information and Civic Education Minister Patricia Kaliati on Friday said that the country will have a booming information and communication technology services after successfully piloting ICT telecentres in some districts of the country.

To be regulated by the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA), the telecentres will be run by women as a way of involving them in ICT activities, the minister said.

"We would like to involve more rural women in the ICT services so that they too should have knowledge in the services," she said.

The telecentres fall under a government initiative called Universal Access Policy, which aims at addressing access to telecommunication issues in rural and under-served communities.

MACRA Public Relations Officer Clara Mulonya said the establishment of ICT telecentres in rural areas will go a long way in assisting the rural mass to have access to the services.

The services that the telecentres will have include, internet services, photo studio, video services, ID processing, computer lessons, fax, phone services, lamination, photocopying and others.

"Government through MACRA established these telecentres which started operating in March last year to address problems of telecommunication services to the rural people which has proven to be a huge success," she said.

The districts which have been identified for the location of the main telecentres with material assistance from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) are Karonga in the north, Kasungu in the central and Mwanza in southern Malawi.

Posted to the site on 14th March 2008