BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR
Godfrey Zamaheya, 26, is running a community-based organization (CBO) in his village in Mwanza. His donors demand that he should be sending them reports on how the CBO is progressing.
But this is not easy for Zamaheya who lives in the rural area where Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services are but a mere dream.
As such, he will need to travel to urban areas where he can access internet services. Or worse still, Zamaheya has to migrate to town where he can easily correspond with his benefactors.
Why ICT services?
In the present century, the advancements in information and communication technologies (ICTs) are changing the various components of human life.
The changes in the ICTs have brought a positive impact in the process of public service delivery and socio-economic structure of communities.
ICT applications in the recent past have demonstrated their positive impact in minimizing the processing costs, increase transparency and support economic development by income generating ventures, increase in agricultural production, and improvements in health and education sectors, all of which promote the overall quality of life of rural people.
ICT for development (ICT4D) is another emerging area of development agenda in Malawi, and its relevance to economic and social development is well-acknowledged although adoption of ICT-based development initiatives is slow in compared to some other developing countries.
ICT4D has become a common phrase in the development world, and till now telecentre is the only focus initiative of ICT4D in the country and many developing countries.
ICT in rural areas
The role of ICT in development can not be disputed and rural areas need to be at par with urban areas if development is to spread at the same pace.
Yahya Ibrahim Harande of the Department of Library and Information Science at Bayero University in Nigeria says access to information and advice is a key resource for local people in maintaining active and independent lives.
Harande believes that access to information is also critical to letting people know their entitlements to welfare benefits and sources of support to overcome social exclusion.
“Information is the lifeblood of any society and vital to the activities of both the government and private sectors,” he says.
The development of countries globally cannot be achieved without the development of the rural community.
This is because 75 to 80 percent of the people in developing countries live in the rural areas need positive, relevant and prompts attention in their daily activities.
No serious, active, conscious, sensitive, and organized government would want to neglect rural communities.
Lack of development has a positive correlation with the neglect of rural areas. Rural neglects brings negative consequences such as exodus of rural dwellers to urban areas, with resulting problems of unemployment, crimes, prostitution, child labour, insecurity, money laundering, bribery, poverty, proliferation of shanty living areas, spread of diseases, and over-stretching of the facilities and infrastructures in the urban areas.
Any nation that neglects the development and empowerment of the rural communities should not expect meaningful development, argues Harande.
Therefore, extension of ICTs to rural areas will promote development and stem rural-urban migration in search of job opportunities, concurs Deputy Minister of Information and Civic Education Kingsley Namakhwa.
Namakhwa believes that even the tendency to migrate to urban areas may be a thing of the past if people are able to access information right in their rural settings.
“In case of marketing, traders will be able to access information about buyers so it is of paramount importance that services like internet are extended to the rural communities,” he thinks.
The deputy minister is very optimistic that extending internet services to rural areas would create employment opportunities for many young people and address some of the development needs of the area.
He notes: “Besides accessing information, when you establish Internet Cafes, jobs are created in servicing, repair and maintenance of the technology.”
Eliza Mkomwa, Chairperson for Mikolongwe CBO at Goliati in Thyolo said all his siblings had moved to the commercial capital, Blantyre, because they couldn’t find competitive schools for their children, and their businesses were collapsing.
“People were spreading rumours here that things have changed. If your child studies in a school without a computer, it is a waste of time because they won’t get jobs when they finish. The young ones always board trucks and go to town to look for jobs but I am too old to do that,” he said.
Interventions to address the disparity
Although Malawi government has been very instrumental in setting up telecentres in rural areas such as Goliyati in Thyolo and Nsanje, many parts of the country are yet to benefit from this movement.
There are no internet or call centres in most parts of the country because of lack of electricity or persistent blackouts, among other reasons.
“I have a computer in my office but it is useless because of lack of electricity. Other NGOs have computer services in their office run on a generator but they are not open to the public,” says a businessman at Nsanje, but refuses to be identified.
ICT services are needed in schools for students to get computer knowledge and dissemination of information.
Group Village Headman Mangazi from T/A Chimaliro is a such a happy man having been the first to benefit from the government's initiative to open ICT service centres in the rural areas.
In an interview on Monday, Mangazi explained that Goliati is a busy growth centre and ICT services are vital for entrepreneurs to find markets for their products.
“We have a busy growth centre and ICT services are vital. In the past, people used to travel to Blantyre, Luchenza or Thyolo to have their certificates and other documentsphotocopied. It was costly,” he observed.
“But we've been very lucky that in its pilot programme, government decided to put up a telecentre here and people can access all ICT services with ease,” says Mangazi who is also chairing the committee that is running the affairs of Goliati Telecentre.
The centre offers services such as photocopy, telephone, internet, email, secretarial services, fax, scanning, computer training, laminating, binding and library.
Impact on the rural masses
Since Goliati telecentre was opened, seven young people from the surrounding areas have been recruited to work in different positions. Namakhwa says these are some of the people who could otherwise be jobless.
And what is interesting is that some of the workers at the centre fall in the category of vulnerable groups.
Febe Kambirima, 30, of Chirombo Village is a widow who had no hope after her husband's death. She is not all that educated either.
“I couldn't imagine raising my twin-children all by myself jobless as I was. But since I got employment at this place, I'm no longer worried,” Kambirima said.
“My financial problems have been reduced drastically and I can now provide for my kids without relying on someone else,” she added.
A female entrepreneur, Mary Banda, proposes the establishment of satellite towns where services can be extended and leave the rest of the area for agricultural activities.
“People are living in scattered villages, so it might be hard to reach every one but we can have demarcated areas where we can put infrastructure in an organized manner,” Banda notes.
Namakhwa assures that Malawi will have a booming information and communication technology services after successfully piloting ICT telecentres in some districts of the country. Women are running these telecentres as a way of involving them in ICT activities while Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) is providing regulation.
"We would like to involve more rural women and the youth in the ICT services so that they too should have knowledge in the services," he says.
The telecentres fall under a government initiative called Universal Access Policy, which aims at addressing access to telecommunication issues in rural and under-served communities. MACRA Communications Manager, Zadziko Alex Mankhambo said on Friday that the establishment of multipurpose telecentres in rural areas will go a long way in assisting the rural mass to have access to the services.
The services that the telecentres provide include, internet services, photo studio, video services, ID processing, computer lessons, fax, phone services, lamination, photocopying and others.
"Government through MACRA established these telecentres which started operating in January last year to address problems of telecommunication services to the rural people which has proven to be a huge success," Mankhambo said.
The districts identified for the location of the main telecentres with material assistance from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) were Karonga in the north, Kasungu in the central and Mwanza in southern Malawi.
END
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