By Loness Gwazanga
Blantyre, October 21, Mana: Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) has given Malcel, a new entrant in the telecommunications industry a facility and network license to roll out its operations in the country.
Minister of Information and Digitalisation, Gospel Kazako said during the official issuance ceremony of the sixth mobile license on Thursday in Blantyre, that the development will bring competition in the telecommunications sector; thereby, leveling the playing field for the benefit of the consumer.
“My plea is that you must not get into the trap of concentrating your operations in urban areas because people in the rural areas also need Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) services. I urge you to roll out your services with speed as consumers are anxious to have new services,” said Kazako.
Kazako, however, assured of government’s commitment in providing a strong digital footprint for a vibrant economy, encouraging Malcel to operate according to the law by renewing their licenses and paying their dues in time to avoid legal battles.
Malcel Chief Executive Officer, Boniface Ndawala said he was excited to be part of the interesting journey of making ICT services conveniently available to all Malawians as stipulated in the Malawi 2063 Agenda.
Ndawala, therefore, assured of a reliable mobile network service that will enable it perform its corporate social responsibility to see consumers being the main beneficiaries.
“Being an all Malawian company, we promise high paying jobs to Malawians; thereby, complementing government’s efforts of creating one million jobs. It feels very good to be part of this dream of taking telecommunications and ICT services to another level,” said Ndawala.
During the event, MACRA also gave authorization to SNDP, a private ICT company to manage and administer the Country Code Top Level Domain (CCTLD) which will see Malawians use dot mw (.mw) emails and websites on MW domains.
According to SNDP Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Paulos Nyirenda, the development will help market Malawian content on the World Wide Web (www) as well as make website hosting cheaper.
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