Malawi leads in mobile phone development

In his presentation to the gathering at the conference, King said Malawi has beaten Africa's average growth of 43% in the number of mobile phone users between 2003 and 2009 as it managed an average growth rate of 63%.

“While only one percent of the population had a cellular phone in 2003, the figure had swelled to 18% by 2009, representing a whopping growth of 63% which is one of the highest figures on the continent,” he said.

Although Malawi's story looks rosy it is not without many challenges and King said chief amongst the challenges is shortage of forex and unreliable national grid leading to high cost of running generators.

King said such challenges have led to high cost of mobile phone tariffs.

“While in France one person works for two minutes to afford a one minute call on the cell phone, in Zambia one works for 97 minutes to meet the cost of a one-minute call while Malawians are supposed to work for 158 minutes for the same,” he bemoaned.

“There is need to review taxes charged on airtime units, although this could not be achieved easily as it is the lucrative way of revenue collection by government,” he said.