Blantyre , January 17, 2019 – Minister of Information and Communications Technology Henry Mussa has hailed integrated mobile and ICT service provider TNM Plc for its role of contributing to the socio-economic development of the country through the use of internet.
Speaking after touring the company’s operations at its headquarters in Blantyre, Mussa said TNM is contributing significantly to the country’s social economic development, and as evidenced by its corporate social responsibility activities in health, education and vulnerable sectors.
“We came here just to appreciate what TNM is doing in as far as their role in disseminating through internet is concerned. Here we discovered that their purpose is more into connecting people and also to educate and transmit information which works very well with the ministry’s mandate as well as the information communication technology, “said Mussa
Mussa said during the meeting TNM and officials from the ministry discussed a number of issues including the increase of network coverage, high cost of internet data and issues of infrastructure development in the sector.
“We wanted to hear their challenges in as far as our collaboration is concerned. But our problem as well with the expenses that Malawians are crying about when it comes to the cost of data. Is quite high but the management has explained the reasons behind the high cost of data but also possible solutions that government should be looking at to strike a win-win balance at the end of the day,” he said.
The minister also appealed to TNM to consider to expand its network coverage enough to cover the entire country but he was quick to mention that government has a project to collaborate with service providers
“You are aware that there are other parts of Malawi where you cannot access network, they are working on that by coming up with more towers and more infrastructure that would see the network being accessed all over. It was a question of who does what in terms of infrastructure development government has a role to play who already have the last mile project which shall be constructing towers all over with approval or concurrent with providers like TNM to make sure that these towers are used to the fullest,” said the minister
In his remarks TNM’s Acting Chief Executive Officer Eric Valentine described the visit by the minister as significant to the provision of ICT services.
“It is very significant, I think it’s a very good aspect and a good initiative for us to address issues of common interest, not just for us as TNM but for the industry as a whole and for Malawi. We hope that this is just an initial engagement and that we will take this further to make a difference in terms of working together with the Ministry,” said Valentine.
On internet affordability, Valentine said there is a need for collaboration between the service providers and Government to have digital economy that can host content and application in the country.
“One of the ever-asking questions is the affordability of telecommunication. I think that is one of the key issues for consumers. We spoke about that, we discussed solutions and you know for me, like I shared with the honourable Minister is that in Malawi we need to create our own digital economy where we are less reliant on getting information from outside of our borders and that way by creating content and applications that are hosted in Malawi then we can reduce the cost of communication especially data,” he said.