ATLANTA, Sunday, June 7, 2015 (MaraviPost): Malawi Government’s ill-advised exercise duty on text messages and internet services in 2015/2016 national budget, mobile service guaranteed that mobile phone expenses will swell to over two-thirds of people’s average monthly earnings in the country.
In a world where in a remarkably short period of time, internet and mobile technology have become a part of everyday life for some in the emerging and developing world including Malawi. Cell phones, in particular, are almost omnipresent in many nations. Instead of our government letting this flourish they are finding ways to retard progress.
In a world of WhatsApp and Facebook offering free access to the internet and mobile calling services, our Malawian politicians with their myopic lenses are seriously considering limiting access by adding fees that many Malawians cannot afford.
TNM added that the cost of utilities, goods and services have significantly increased in Malawi in the past year and thus eroded the returns for telecommunication operators, thus justifying another rate increase.
The Consumer Association of Malawi (CAMA), a consumer watchdog, has protested the increase in mobile tariffs in the Malawi and has demanded that the telecom sector regulator, that Malawi Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Macra) stop the hike.
In his letter to TNM and Macra, CAMA executive director John Kapito said, “The increase is unethical and immoral considering the fact that consumers continue complaining about the poor services that your network provides.”
Macra said however, that it cannot stop TNM from hiking tariffs. Instead, it said it is contemplating bringing more operators into the market in order to increase competition and force a reduction in mobile phone tariffs in the sector, now monopolized by NTM and Airtel.
Just yesterday the Malawi President met with Chinese investors willing to bring competitive communications products into the country. That is the way to go not increasing levies and rates. Easy and cheap communications and transportation will lead to more development and uplifting of standard of living for many Malawians. Goodall Gondwe who many tout to be a smart financial man has definitely fallen short here. He appears not to understand the impact the Internet and power of mobile capabilities bring to the world.
While in the West and the Far East they are making it easier for their citizenry to access the Internet through mobile and FREE hotspots in any coffee shop, library or any public gathering place, Malawi is taking the opposite direction, finding another way to soak it to the poor Malawians.
USA local government and Federal government have taken to free text messages to alert the public of disasters, Bank applications use mobile texting as added security to bank accounts, yet the Malawi government is imposing unnecessarily road blocks to the use of these technologies by many in the country.
Findings by research instituted by Macra in January this year indicated that Malawi’s phone and Internet access prices rank highest among African countries. If that is the case why would Goodall Gondwe and President Peter Mutharika try to add more to this burden?
Shame on Peter Mutharika and Goodall Gondwe. Internet brings knowledge and libraries to peoples Smartphones. It allows Malawians to access libraries in Europe, Russia, China at it should be at minimal costs.
Colleges are offering classes through the Internet, Whole post graduate degrees are now offered online because the Internet is cheap and yet Malawi government want to deny this to us, shame on them.
On average, the cost of making mobile phone calls in Malawi is 72 kwacha ($0.164) per minute within the network and $0.205 per minute between networks.
Malawi government should find ways to encourage many Malawians to have Internet access, not limit. The countries that have made the Internet accessible like Botswana and South Africa are ranked higher in standards of living. It would be a shame for Peter Mutharika’s reign to be remembered as that of the person who stood between progress and his people.
Mr. Goodall Gondwe, It is not too late to do the right thing!
