By Kondanani Chilimunthaka

President Lazarus Chakwera who is in Qatar for 5th Conference for the Least Developed Countries has strengthen his vision for the country to fully venture into digitalization, saying Malawi intends to introduce internet access at all levels of education as one way towards achieving digital transformation to increase the country’s potential in commercial development.

He made the remarks on the sidelines of the conference which is underway in Doha during the meeting he had with the Secretary General for International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Ms. Doreen Bogdan-Martin.

Malawi Leader who was joined by the Minister responsible for Information and Digitalization and MACRA Director General, Daud Suleiman among other delegates expressed his desire to partner for Malawi to partner with ITU.

“It is my strong desire for Malawi to partner with ITU to pave the way for digital inclusivity and universal internet access at all socio-economic levels through affordable internet products with the youth in mind” President Chakwera said.

But President Chakwera in his remarks highlighted the challenges Malawi is facing to achieve digital development including high data and device costs, which he said lead to access and connectivity deprivation.

In her remarks, Bogdan Martin commented on Malawi for making strides towards achieving digital transformation. But she made it clear that going forward the country must focus on bringing down costs, saying the world already has network coverage and that challenges arise from lack of local content including e-Government services, high data and device costs among others.

During the side meeting the two also discussed the prospects of a radical development model that will bolster cyber security and strengthen any law that may be created to govern the cyber sphere.

Apart from providing a platform for Malawi to engage in ITU general telecommunications, and ICT related business, ITU has assisted Malawi in a number of ICT related areas including Cyber-security, and capacity building.