Malawi's e-commerce revolution

British aid is helping Malawi's IT development

By Raphael Tenthani in Blantyre

A British company is paddling uncharted waters in Malawi's commerce revolution.

International Computers Limited (ICL), a British company with interests in eight African countries, has embarked on a project to bring electronic commerce (e-commerce) to Malawi.

George Mnesa, ICL's Malawi general, said the multi-national company would work with two of Malawi's three Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

"We want Malawi to be part of the information revolution," he said.

Support

Mnesa said although Malawi was currently facing economic hardships his company found it necessary to introduce the elitist system of trade.

This comes fast in the wake of the British Government's signing of an agreement to support Malawi's IT development.

Malawi is technologically underdeveloped - under the late President Banda even television was outlawed

British minister for Africa in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Peter Hain told BBC News Online during a recent visit to Malawi that Britain has decided to include IT support in the development support for its former colony.

"We know Malawi is facing a number of economic problems but we believe that nowadays no economy can develop without developing its IT sector," he said.

Link-up

According to Mr Hain British universities will link up with Malawian universities to development an IT collaboration programme.

He also said British IT companies will set up partnerships with their Malawian counterparts.

He said the system Britain was planning to export to Malawi has already proved successful in other developing countries, notably India.

Networks

Mr Mnesa told the BBC ICL would utilise the services of Malawi's two mobile phone networks.

The two networks have about 30, 000 subscribers between them.

ISPs in Malawi are estimated to have just over 5,000 subscribers between them.

Michael Fairon, an 'e-nnovations' officer at ICL South Africa, recently visited Malawi to promote e-commerce in the business community.

He said e-commerce propelled efficiency in business.

He also said e-commerce cut the incidence of fraud since customer data was stored on the web.