Starfish Mobile International, an African Wireless Application Service Provider (WASP), has partnered with Telekom Network Malawi (TNM), an African mobile network provider, in launching and strategically driving TNM's Mobile Content business and services in Malawi.
The initial launch services will allow TNM subscribers to access a range of mobile content services ranging from basic SMS services including, but not limited to, General News, Exchange Rates, Sports updates, Love Messages, Religious Messages and Horoscopes to the popular Ring Back Tone (RBT) Music Service.
The launch is part of Starfish Mobile's long term strategy with TNM in building an exciting, innovative and profitable VAS business for TNM in Malawi and in bringing content services to a vast number of their mobile subscribers, many of which have never been exposed to these sorts of mobile services before. The country's estimated mobile penetration stands at over 1, 5 million mobile users.
“We are very excited with our strategic partnership with TNM and in the potential of the Malawian VAS market going forward,” says Per Ostberg, Starfish Mobile Country Manager for Malawi.
Part of Starfish Mobile's success over the past 6 years in creating and building very successful and profitable VAS businesses for Mobile Operators in Africa has always been a very strong focus on localised content and Malawi is no exception. “We have already signed over 15 Malawian music artist as part of creating a very strong local music presence and catalogue for TNM. This is just the start of what we have planned in creating a very dynamic localised mobile music business in Malawi. We should also mention that Starfish Mobile has an agreement with COSOMA in Malawi for the collection of Mechanical Music Royalties,” says Jason Williams, Starfish Mobile Content Manager for Malawi.
Starfish Mobile is also looking at launching some very innovative and exciting Mobile Marketing campaigns with TNM in the near future based on some very successful promotions we have run in other countries over the past 12 months. This all forms part of a structured roll-out strategy for TNM going forward and is based on what Starfish has successfully implemented for other Mobile Operators in Africa over the past six years.
Starfish Mobile International is now one of the biggest Mobile Strategy, Content and Media companies on the African continent and is currently operating in 17 countries and is connected to 23 Mobile Operators.
Friday, 26 June 2009
Country to Boost Investment in Science
Malawi's newly re-elected president has promised increased investment in science as part of a plan to transform the country into a net exporter of goods and services.
Bingu wa Mutharika, who was sworn in this week (22 June), said in his inaugural speech that he would prioritise science and technology along with other key areas including agriculture and food security; irrigation and water development; and environmental degradation.
Increased funding for science is widely expected in the 2009-10 budget, to be announced in the next fortnight. The increase will partly fund a new Commission of Science and Technology, which is expected to be established next month.
"Once the commission is established there will be no duplication of efforts on science and technology," Alfred Maluwa, Malawi's deputy director of science and technology, told SciDev.Net. "All the activities will be coordinated under the umbrella of the commission."
Mutharika also emphasised continuing investment in tertiary education. He has appointed minister of local government and local development George Chaponda to the position of minister of education, science and technology in his 43-member cabinet.
"The next five years my government will continue to rehabilitate infrastructure development in education; provide better housing for teachers; and conduct a comprehensive review of the education, science and technology curriculum," Mutharika said in his speech.
But Vernon Kabambe, a crop scientist at the Bunda College of Agriculture - a constituent college of the University of Malawi - said that funding for research activities at the university was suffering at the expense of money being channelled into tertiary education.
He called for a return of Malawi's disbanded research fund, which rewarded researchers who made good research proposals. "where researchers would benefit depending on what research proposals with bright ideas were approved".
The new government plans to diversify its power sources from hydropower to solar, wind and geothermal, and to intensify the rural electrification programme.
Agricultural science is also a priority, Mutharika said. He pledged to research and disseminate good farming practices, crops storage techniques and irrigation.
Meanwhile UNESCO is funding a review of the country's 2003 science and technology policy to align it to the Malawi Growth Development Strategy.
Bingu wa Mutharika, who was sworn in this week (22 June), said in his inaugural speech that he would prioritise science and technology along with other key areas including agriculture and food security; irrigation and water development; and environmental degradation.
Increased funding for science is widely expected in the 2009-10 budget, to be announced in the next fortnight. The increase will partly fund a new Commission of Science and Technology, which is expected to be established next month.
"Once the commission is established there will be no duplication of efforts on science and technology," Alfred Maluwa, Malawi's deputy director of science and technology, told SciDev.Net. "All the activities will be coordinated under the umbrella of the commission."
Mutharika also emphasised continuing investment in tertiary education. He has appointed minister of local government and local development George Chaponda to the position of minister of education, science and technology in his 43-member cabinet.
"The next five years my government will continue to rehabilitate infrastructure development in education; provide better housing for teachers; and conduct a comprehensive review of the education, science and technology curriculum," Mutharika said in his speech.
But Vernon Kabambe, a crop scientist at the Bunda College of Agriculture - a constituent college of the University of Malawi - said that funding for research activities at the university was suffering at the expense of money being channelled into tertiary education.
He called for a return of Malawi's disbanded research fund, which rewarded researchers who made good research proposals. "where researchers would benefit depending on what research proposals with bright ideas were approved".
The new government plans to diversify its power sources from hydropower to solar, wind and geothermal, and to intensify the rural electrification programme.
Agricultural science is also a priority, Mutharika said. He pledged to research and disseminate good farming practices, crops storage techniques and irrigation.
Meanwhile UNESCO is funding a review of the country's 2003 science and technology policy to align it to the Malawi Growth Development Strategy.
Pocklington's school links with Malawi
A POCKLINGTON Primary school is building links with an orphan day care centre in rural Malawi.
Pupils from St Mary and St Joseph's RC School have been exchanging letters with children at the centre.
The project started in 2005 when Colin Stonelake, husband of one of the school's teachers, Lydia Stonelake, visited Malawi as trustee of a charity which works with local churches in the country.
His wife suggested he took letters from her pupils with him when he visited the day centre.
Many of the children replied in English and the letters were given to the school.
Mr Stonelake visited Ntonda again in January this year and took more responses from Pocklington pupils with him.
The handover was filmed so children could see the people they had written to. The Ntonda children wrote back again and this week the letters were distributed in school.
Mr Stonelake is going back to the country next month and will take replies with him.
A school spokesperson said: "For the children of Pocklington this connection has been both interesting and informative. They have learned about the hardships of Malawi and the all too frequent experience of children losing their parents to Aids, malaria and other prevalent illnesses.
"They have also seen the basic conditions in which these children live through the video footage which Colin took in January.
"For the children of Ntonda it has shown them that children from the other side of the world are interested in them and want to share aspects of their lives in the UK with them."
Pupils from St Mary and St Joseph's RC School have been exchanging letters with children at the centre.
The project started in 2005 when Colin Stonelake, husband of one of the school's teachers, Lydia Stonelake, visited Malawi as trustee of a charity which works with local churches in the country.
His wife suggested he took letters from her pupils with him when he visited the day centre.
Many of the children replied in English and the letters were given to the school.
Mr Stonelake visited Ntonda again in January this year and took more responses from Pocklington pupils with him.
The handover was filmed so children could see the people they had written to. The Ntonda children wrote back again and this week the letters were distributed in school.
Mr Stonelake is going back to the country next month and will take replies with him.
A school spokesperson said: "For the children of Pocklington this connection has been both interesting and informative. They have learned about the hardships of Malawi and the all too frequent experience of children losing their parents to Aids, malaria and other prevalent illnesses.
"They have also seen the basic conditions in which these children live through the video footage which Colin took in January.
"For the children of Ntonda it has shown them that children from the other side of the world are interested in them and want to share aspects of their lives in the UK with them."
Legal wrangling stalls Malawi monazite-mining project
Mine development at the Kangunkunde monazite mine, in Malawi’s southern district of Balaka, has stalled for more than three years owing to a court wrangle over ownership of the mineral rights.
A consortium known as Rare Earth started developing the mine in 2003, after the Malawi government had granted it a mining licence.
At the time, the Malawi government had refused to renew an exclusive prospecting licence (EPL) for South Africa’s Rift Valley Resources on the grounds that it had failed to show that it was serious about starting mining operations.
“When you were granted an EPL in March, 2000, one would have thought that you already had most of the information from the previous work and completing what was outlined in your programme [was not going to] take long,” the then Energy Minister, Uladi Mussa, said in a letter to Rift Valley Resources representative Michael Saner.
“Government has serious reservations as regards your seriousness to develop the deposit into a mine. In the circumstances, government is unable to favourably consider renewal of your licence.”
Rift Valley begged to differ and sued the Malawi government in 2006. The High Court, in Blantyre, ruled that the Malawi government’s refusal of Rift Valley’s licence was illegal.
“I am presently awaiting a High Court date, where the sole item on the agenda is the quantification of damages that I have suffered, not the fact thereof – that is past. Government has not, as yet, abided by the court decision to return the mineral rights to me.
“My total costs to date, covering the above and including my legal costs, are approximately $1-million. However, you need to carefully consider the difference between ‘cost’, ‘price’, and ‘value’.
“My costs are the value I have added to the project and can be counted in the tens of millions of dollars,” says Saner in an emailed statement.
Rare Earths suspended work on the Kangunkunde deposit owing to the legal wrangling after it had, besides other things, completed construction of water reservoirs and foundations and had sunk boreholes.
A consortium known as Rare Earth started developing the mine in 2003, after the Malawi government had granted it a mining licence.
At the time, the Malawi government had refused to renew an exclusive prospecting licence (EPL) for South Africa’s Rift Valley Resources on the grounds that it had failed to show that it was serious about starting mining operations.
“When you were granted an EPL in March, 2000, one would have thought that you already had most of the information from the previous work and completing what was outlined in your programme [was not going to] take long,” the then Energy Minister, Uladi Mussa, said in a letter to Rift Valley Resources representative Michael Saner.
“Government has serious reservations as regards your seriousness to develop the deposit into a mine. In the circumstances, government is unable to favourably consider renewal of your licence.”
Rift Valley begged to differ and sued the Malawi government in 2006. The High Court, in Blantyre, ruled that the Malawi government’s refusal of Rift Valley’s licence was illegal.
“I am presently awaiting a High Court date, where the sole item on the agenda is the quantification of damages that I have suffered, not the fact thereof – that is past. Government has not, as yet, abided by the court decision to return the mineral rights to me.
“My total costs to date, covering the above and including my legal costs, are approximately $1-million. However, you need to carefully consider the difference between ‘cost’, ‘price’, and ‘value’.
“My costs are the value I have added to the project and can be counted in the tens of millions of dollars,” says Saner in an emailed statement.
Rare Earths suspended work on the Kangunkunde deposit owing to the legal wrangling after it had, besides other things, completed construction of water reservoirs and foundations and had sunk boreholes.
Malawi grants UK firm pyrite exploration licence
UK mineral exploration and development group Lisungwe Mineral Resources has
acquired a licence entitling it to explore for pyrite at Madisi, in central Malawi.
Pyrite is used to produce sulphuric acid.
“The board of Lisungwe regards this important acquisition as another vital step towards establishing Lisungwe as a major exploration and minerals development group in this part of South-Eastern Africa,” says CEO Roy Tucker.
Tucker explains that the 1 140-km2 exploration area is adjacent to well-documented pyrite deposits and complements Lisungwe’s Malingunde tenement, where drilling is in progress.
“The new Madisi area has similar litholigies and regional structures to those associated with pyrite deposits at Malingunde and Chisepo, both of which have drill-indicated resources,” says Tucker.
He says the Madisi licence block comprises a number of zones with “widespread gossan development (decom- posed iron sulphides) and pyrite mineralisation”.
Tucker says that Madisi is served by paved roads and is located only 60 km to the south of Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe. Water can be obtained from the Bua and Kasangadzi rivers and electricity transmission lines pass through the area.
Lisungwe, which is listed on the UK’s Ofex market, wants to use the sulphuric acid for the processing of nickel that it intends to mine at Chimimbe, also in central Malawi.
Pyrite is used to produce sulphuric acid.
“The board of Lisungwe regards this important acquisition as another vital step towards establishing Lisungwe as a major exploration and minerals development group in this part of South-Eastern Africa,” says CEO Roy Tucker.
Tucker explains that the 1 140-km2 exploration area is adjacent to well-documented pyrite deposits and complements Lisungwe’s Malingunde tenement, where drilling is in progress.
“The new Madisi area has similar litholigies and regional structures to those associated with pyrite deposits at Malingunde and Chisepo, both of which have drill-indicated resources,” says Tucker.
He says the Madisi licence block comprises a number of zones with “widespread gossan development (decom- posed iron sulphides) and pyrite mineralisation”.
Tucker says that Madisi is served by paved roads and is located only 60 km to the south of Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe. Water can be obtained from the Bua and Kasangadzi rivers and electricity transmission lines pass through the area.
Lisungwe, which is listed on the UK’s Ofex market, wants to use the sulphuric acid for the processing of nickel that it intends to mine at Chimimbe, also in central Malawi.
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