One persistent challenge in the development of the ICT sector in Africa is the low uptake of digital services, with internet penetration standing at 22% against a global average of 60% according to the International Finance Corporation.
On the local scene the picture isn’t uplifting either, with statistics standing at 86% of Malawians lacking access to the internet according to the National Statistics Office.
All this is among others attributed on high cost of digital services and lack of investments for the ICT industry.
And the World Bank too paints its own picture, saying already Malawi was losing 222 million US dollars annually from low uptake of digital technologies.
Thus to solve this puzzle the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, Comesa is leading the implementation of an ambitious four year project dubbed ‘the Enhancement of Governance and Enabling Environment in the ICT Sector to support the review and development of harmonized regional ICT policies.
Launched in May 2022, the initiative aspires to enhance competition and improve access to cost-effective and secure ICT services in 29 countries in the Comesa region including Malawi.
According to David Sabiti, project team leader, the initiative holds the key to deepening integration in the ICT sector within the bloc.
“The purpose is to deepen regional integration in the ICT sector by bringing together different stakeholders within the bloc in formulating, reviewing and updating ICT polices in a harmonized manner “Sabiti said.
Besides, Bernard Dzawanda, senior transport economist for Comesa agrees and says the project is a breakthrough towards enhancing trade integration at a time the region accounts for 324 billion US dollars of the global export and import market.
“The objective is to promote the use of ICT through proper governance, easy access and cost effectiveness in a secure manner, commercial activities have gone digital hence the need for ICT innovations that could assist the region to maximize its gains from trade”, Dzawanda explained.
Meanwhile, Malawi seems to be making progress in the implementation of the project as Patrick Machika, director of E-government in the ministry of information and digitization confirms the recruitment of consultants and completion of three study reports to guide implementation of the project in the country.
“ Through Comesa consultants have been recruited and three study reports have been finalized , the first report is on identifying stakeholders and establishing a baseline on policy making, the second is on existing E-commerce data protection public infrastructure and the last is dealing with technical assistance to regional associations”, Machika said.
Further, Mayeso Msokera, spokesperson for Malawi ministry of trade says development of a standalone policy on E-trade is underway to encourage uptake of digital technologies in the business sector.
“The Malawi government has through the department of E-government and communications regulator, Macra, facilitated the development of a digital economy strategy,
“Now we are working on a standalone policy on E-trade because the digital economy is broad and we want to narrow it down to trade facilitation using ICT , so our goal is to develop a policy which outlines the road map on promoting trade using electronic platforms”, Msokera said.
This has excited the Malawi Union of Small and Medium Enterprises whose chairperson, Barba Banda is convinced of the project’s good as a tool for promoting economic recovery and empowering uptake of digital services among women.
“It is a great opportunity, this is coming on the heels of our experiences during the peak of covid-19 when we started noticing that trade was no longer viable through physical means because of restrictions and this brought new innovations around E-trade.
“ On a gender perspective , we know that the digital divide is more inclined towards men and more women have no access to digital technologies, this project has great potential to close that gap by promoting easy access to digital services”, Banda noted.
Also positive about the venture are implementing partners of the project, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD).
Sharing his excitement, Chinsepo Lungu, programs officer responsible for ICT in the SADC secretariat observes the program was solution to promoting a digital economy and enhancing cyber security in vulnerable countries like Malawi where cybercrimes were on the rise.
“SADC is pushing for regional integration and from the ICT perspective we are trying to champion it from the areas of E-commerce and promotion of the digital economy. We are working on the SADC digital transformation strategy to promote an inclusive digital society.
“This project will assist in strengthening operations of the SADC region incidence computer response team, which is a collaborative platform to combat cybercrimes and cyber security incidences”, Lungu said.
Likewise Zacharia Kigori, regional infrastructure master plan coordinator for Intergovernmental Authority for Development praises the initiative saying it has magic to promote efficient communication using digital technologies as means for boosting trade in the Comesa region.
“Communication is very important in trade matters, if communication is efficient and affordable more trade happens. This program is vital to promote the expansion of the ICT sector, improve regulatory systems and capacity building, all this will promote effective trade in the region”, Kigori observed.
Also pleased with the initiative are players in the ICT sector who feel it has great potential to improve operations of the ICT industry in Africa.
On his part, Clarence Gama, president of the ICT Association of Malawi observers the project was one solution to dealing away with problems Malawi and other African nations are facing in the ICT sector.
“This is a very big opportunity for Malawi, especially because this program will enable us put in place a governance framework which will act as a guide, an obvious benefit will be improved uptake of ICT services through the development of ICT infrastructure so that the ordinary Malawian should benefit”, Gama explained.
Equally Bram Fudzulani, chairperson for Malawi Internet Governance Forum feels the project stands to turn around misfortunes Malawi and other African Nations are facing in pursuit of promoting uptake and affordability of ICT services.
“If we could have ICT policies that allow movement of data between countries, that would definitely ease the way of doing business, Malawi is still struggling on ways to tap internet connection from neighboring countries and this program has great potential to address this issue.
“Enhancing internet connectivity in regional initiatives could benefit countries in the Comesa region in lowering prices and improving uptake of digital services.” Fudzulani said.
The Enhancement of Governance and Enabling Environment in the ICT sector (EGEE-ICT) Project is a four year program Funded by the European Union to the tune of 8 million euros.
The project aims at coordinating regional public and private sector ICT policy development, enhance policy and regulatory environment for competitive markets and gender sensitive ICT markets and improve infrastructure connectivity and access to ICT.
According to the EGEE-ICT project document, the penetration of mobile telephones in eastern and Southern Africa as well as the Indian Ocean region has increased because of both public and private sector investments in infrastructure adding that internet penetration is also growing.
Comesa is leading the implementation of the initiative in collaboration with other regional economic bloc’s namely ; the Southern African Development Community(SADC),Intergovernmental Authority for Development(IGAD), East African Community(EAC) and Indian Ocean Commission(IOC).
So, given the projects relevance, it is important for stakeholders to develop a sound monitoring and evaluation system to ensure successful implementation of the initiative.
In equal measure, it also challenges implementing authorities to master the project and take charge of its execution for a vibrant ICT sector in Africa.
