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| Features |
| ICT: A necessity in rural areas? |
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by
Taonga Sabola, 29 June 2006
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05:49:47
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In her opening address to this year’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) fair in Blantyre in February, Information and Tourism Minister Patricia Kaliati challenged companies involved in the ICT sector to take technology to people on the ground.
“As government, we would like ICT products to be enjoyed by many. We would like to see people in Limbuli, Makanjira and Mkando having access to ICT products.
“We would like to see the local tomato grower in the village using the internet to access markets for his or her products,” said Kaliati.
Beautiful, isn’t it, especially coming from government?
Indeed, imagine how beautiful it could appear if almost all the farmers in the rural areas had access to ICT. Every farmer glued to the computer, searching for markets.
But is it practical? Is ICT what the local masses are looking for? Are the rural masses ready to consume ICT products?
Malawi—a small highly populated land-locked country of approximately 12 million people with a total area of 118,480 sq. km—has over eight in every 10 of its people living in rural areas. Its economy depends on agriculture and a very good percentage of the population, over 65 percent, is illiterate.
Andrew Bayison is one of the few lucky businessmen operating a grocery shop in Phalombe, a remote district east of Blantyre and neighbouring the former colonial capital, Zomba.
In Phalombe, Bayison is regarded as someone in the know.
Ask Bayison if he knows a computer and he honestly answers you that he has seen some on several occasions he has been to Blantyre to buy wares to replenish his shop.
But, although he has seen a computer before, Bayison does not know how a computer operates.
“If I were to be given a computer today, I will definitely sell it as it will be something of no use to me,” says Bayison.
On the other hand, Agnes Thom—who grows sun-flower at Mulomba in Phalombe—has never seen a computer but says she has heard people mentioning the name computer before.
Phalombe could be seen as an extreme case. But even in major cities of Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu, especially in the government departments, there are still a lot of people who have never used the computer.
For example, the revelation last month that the Malawi News Agency (Mana)—a critical department of the Ministry of Information—helps to paint the picture of how bad the situation is on the ground. During her visit to Mana offices, Kaliati learnt that there was only a single working computer in the whole regional office.
Malawi ranks 93 out of 104 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Networked Readiness Index of 2004, beating only Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, Ethiopia and Chad in Africa.
The Networked Readiness Index measures a country’s likelihood to leverage the opportunity offered by ICT for development and competitiveness by examining the country’s environment—that is the general macroeconomic, regulatory and infrastructure; the readiness of individuals, businesses and government to use and benefit from ICT, and the actual usage of the latest information and communication technologies.
ICT consultant Chatonda Mhango says from Malawi’s stage of development, it is very clear that ICT product are not what the rural masses need. He notes that giving ICT to the rural masses at this time will be like donating a television screen to a blind person.
“I think government is jumping the gun on that one. I think government better create awareness in the people about ICT products and let the people appreciate them before bringing them to the rural areas,” said Mhango.
He adds that all government needs to do is to put telephone booths in the rural areas as it is the only gadget they are conversant with because it is not very technical.
Another old-timer in the ICT business says the whole concept of bringing ICT to the local masses makes no business sense hence a non-starter.
“Who will use these things in the rural areas if even the urban areas provide a limited market for such products? Government needs to understand that the private sector is there to make money ,”said the expert who opted for anonymity.
Malawi holds a vision of ICT contributing to the attainment of the aspirations of the Vision 2020 by improving the quality of life of the people of Malawi by enriching their social, economic and cultural well-being through the modernisation of the economy and society using ICT as an engine for accelerated, sustainable development and economic growth; social and cultural development; national prosperity; and global competitiveness.
As is the case with most other developing countries, Malawi faces a number of infrastructure, human and financial resource constraints to the development of its ICT sector.
Although the Government recognise the role that ICTs could play in the socio-economic development process, there is currently no specific government policy designed for promoting the growth of the ICT industry and service sector with the ICT policy still in the pipeline.
There are little incentive packages like tax incentives, investment promotion incentives designed for promoting the development of the ICT sector or industry. There are however still a number of disincentives that could hinder the growth of the ICT industry and sector.
Currently there is not much deployment of computers in the schools. Apart from a number of well-endowed schools, the vast majority of Malawi school children have not been exposed to the computer technology in any shape or form.
The Ministry of Education has just introduced a computer curricula in the Malawi school system and there is currently few to no specific government incentives to promote and encourage ICT based education and basic computer training in Malawian schools. There is no specific IT awareness promotion programme in the schools either.
Although a number of universities and colleges are offering specialist diploma and degree level programmes in computer science, there is however a need to introduce more of these courses in some of the institutions to meet increasing demand.
For Malawi to achieve the dream of having ICT in the rural areas, it needs to address bottle-necks like high cost of capital, with no special funding or financing models for ICT sector development initiatives; low levels of human resource development in the ICT sector; under-developed ICT infrastructure; high cost of telecommunications; unstable and unreliable power and of course low literacy levels.
When that is done, then we can start dreaming about our grannies in Mulanje, Salima, Ntcheu, Karonga and Nsanje appreciating computers. As for today, let us just push the phone companies to increase their connectivity or broaden their network to these rural areas.
The mobile phones seem to do the magic. Most people—including the illiterates—are able to use the mobile phone hand-sets.
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