ICT sector eyes policy enforcement

The ICT sec­tor is expec­ted to shift from pilot projects to policy enforce­ment in 2026, with a focus on clear­ing the 100,000plus pass­port back­log and ensur­ing full oper­a­tion­al­isa­tion of gov­ern­ment digital sys­tems.

In an inter­view, ICT expert and former pres­id­ent of the ICT Asso­ci­ation of Malawi (ICTAM) Bram Fudzu­lani said the Depart­ment of e-Gov­ern­ment would be under immense pres­sure to onboard all major min­is­tries, depart­ments and agen­cies onto the Enter­prise Ser­vice Bus for the inter­op­er­ab­il­ity of gov­ern­ment sys­tems.

“By mid-2026, the Digit­al­isa­tion Policy must move from a doc­u­ment on a shelf to a lived real­ity where driver’s licence renew­als and national ID applic­a­tions and pay­ments are fully online,” Fudzu­lani said.

He said the oper­a­tion­al­isa­tion of the smart­phone local assembly plant would help shift from con­nectiv­ity to con­tent, cre­at­ing more apps for gov­ern­ment pay­ments and digital agri­cul­ture. To enhance ICT uptake in 2026, experts are call­ing for apprais­als of prin­cipal sec­ret­ar­ies to be strictly tied to the Malawi Digit­al­isa­tion Policy, meas­ur­ing suc­cess by how many depart­mental ser­vices are avail­able online.

Fudzu­lani sug­ges­ted that the gov­ern­ment should part­ner with tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions com­pan­ies to zero-rate all traffic to offi­cial gov­ern­ment portals to encour­age cit­izens to use digital tools. “If it costs zero data to apply for a national ID online, the uptake will hap­pen nat­ur­ally,” he said. Cur­rent Ictam Pres­id­ent Clar­ence Gama said the out­look for 2026 is cau­tiously optim­istic, but suc­cess will depend heav­ily on improve­ments in net­work sta­bil­ity and qual­ity of ser­vice.

He said it was cru­cial that the two main mobile net­work oper­at­ors, TNM and Air­tel, pri­or­it­ise improve­ments in qual­ity of ser­vice to ensure reli­able ser­vices for both con­sumers and crit­ical pub­lic plat­forms.

“As Malawi con­tin­ues to digit­ise pub­lic and private ser­vices, ICT infra­struc­ture is no longer optional—it is found­a­tional,” Gama said. Other sug­ges­tions include remov­ing VAT and import duties on entry-level smart­phones, final­ising incent­ives for local assembly plants and estab­lish­ing AI innov­a­tion hubs to develop voice-based inter­faces in local lan­guages.

Gama emphas­ised the need for mobile net­work oper­at­ors to invest in resi­li­ent and high-capa­city infra­struc­ture, strengthen reg­u­lat­ory enforce­ment of QoS stand­ards and expand digital skills and cyber­se­cur­ity aware­ness. In 2025, the sec­tor recor­ded mod­er­ate growth, driven mainly by mobile con­nectiv­ity and digital fin­an­cial ser­vices.

Malawi had over 13 mil­lion mobile con­nec­tions, rep­res­ent­ing more than 60 per­cent of the pop­u­la­tion while inter­net usage remained below 20 per­cent. Major chal­lenges included the pass­port sys­tem trans­ition, poor qual­ity of ser­vice from mobile net­work oper­at­ors, for­eign exchange con­straints and high costs of data and devices.

The year also saw sig­ni­fic­ant oppor­tun­it­ies, includ­ing the launch of the Pub­lic Sec­tor Reforms Inform­a­tion Man­age­ment Sys­tem in Decem­ber and the Malawi National Single Win­dow in May, which began integ­rat­ing trade-related agen­cies.