$20m set aside to link Malawi to big undersea cables

The World Bank has approved $20-million for the implementation of Malawi’s component of the Regional Communications Infrastructure Project (RCIP), which entails the construction of infrastructure linking Malawi to the coastal landing stations of submarine fibre-optic cables 
expected to be operational by 2010.

Malawi Privatisation Commis-
sion (MPC) communication 
officer Chimwemwe Matonga reports that President Bingu wa Mutha-rika’s government has mandated the commission to take 
charge of the telecommunications project, which is to be imple-
mented as a public–private partnership.

“Government, as a major purchaser of information and communication technology (ICT) services, will purchase capacity to maintain the backbone infrastructure.

However, any additional 
infrastructure will be owned and operated by the private sector.”

The Malawi government and the World Bank hope that the project will reduce the cost of doing business in Malawi which, like many countries in Africa, has historically had under-
developed communications 
infrastructure. 


“The project will help remove cost bottlenecks to international 
connectivity and other bottlenecks at international and local levels. 
“In the long run, the government of Malawi, through the project, aims at improving productive capacity and reducing the cost of doing business, positioning creativity as a tool for shared growth and creating incentives for private-sector investment,” says the MPC. 


The project also has a capacity building component and will also entail the rendering of 
advisory support to agencies that will provide technical assistance and monitoring and evaluation assistance to the agencies of government involved in the ICT sector, including the MPC, the Ministry of Information and Civic Education and the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority.

The MPC says the project also has an environment, social and resettlement component.

The World Bank included Malawi in the third phase of the RCIP, alongside Tanzania and Mozambique, after the second phase of the project was implemented in Rwanda at a cost of $24-million.

The Bretton Woods institution bankrolled the first phase of the multimillion-dollar project, implemented in 2007, in Kenya, Burundi and Madagascar, to the tune of $164-million.

Future phases of the project are expected to include the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Mauritius, Namibia, Swaziland, Uganda 
and Zambia, depending on their readiness, and information from the World Bank indicates that, overall, the project is open to Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, the DRC, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, the Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.