Malawi still lags behind in internet use

Malawi’s minister of labour Davis Katsonga has said that the Southern African country still lags behind in the use of the internet due to in adequate infrastructure and higher costs.

The minister was speaking in the country’s capital Lilongwe during the opening of the 3rd annual connecting Rural Communities Africa Forum.

Katsonga said a few people use the internet in the country due to high costs.
“Internet users’ diffusion in Malawi is the lowest among countries in the region and that has made the access to internet very high,” he said.

Recently during a meeting of Librarians and Information experts in Southern African region in Zambia, it was observed that Africa still lags behind in the use of computers especially the internet.

The gathering also noted that things like agriculture would improve tremendously as we look ahead to fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) if for instance farmers in the rural areas have access to the internet to learn new skills.

The Malawi minister said the country which depends on agriculture for its economy just like other nations in the region has a big mountain to climb as regards to spreading Information and communication technology (ICT) to the rural areas.

In Malawi the internet is mostly used in the urban areas and there is still a long way for ICT to penetrate the urban areas.

Malawi’s minister of information and civic education was quoted in the local newspaper on Wednesday as saying that the country is planning to have all urban centres connected by 2012 and connect rural areas by 2015.

The report further quoted the minister as saying Malawi has only 12 percent penetration of telecommunication.

The forum which opened on Tuesday has drawn together 180 international delegates with three ministers of information from Kenya, Tanzania and Sierra Leone.

According to the report Malawi is the third country to host the regional forum after Kenya and Rwanda.