Anti-Bakili Muluzi / MALAWI POLITICS TODAY

Malawi gears up for e-governance

Manager for Government Wide Area Network (GWAN) Patrick Machika told the country’s national news agency, Malawi News Agency (Mana) that government in collaboration with the World Bank embarked on the project which will take five years at a cost US$3.2 million. He said computer operators would be communicating through e-mail, conducting research through the internet and making conversation through the integrated computer network and video conferencing instead of the telephone. “With video conferencing, ICT users will be able to see who they are talking to,” said Machika. He said that the services to be provided by GWAN would minimize government expenditure in paying individual Internet Service Providers and monitoring the transmission of viruses between computers linked to the network. “Government would cut costs on telephone bills, internet subscription and provide security measures against computer viruses by using anti virus software. All computers will have one entry and one exit,” said Machika. He said over 500 civil servants have already been trained in ICT with assistance from the Taiwanese Government which has also donated 400 computers to be distributed to various ministries. He however parried fears that the new innovation will see mass retrenchments in government ministries. He said some of the functions will continue to be handled manually. Blantyre (AND) He said the project aims at connecting all computer systems in the civil service onto the superhighway to enable officers to communicate swiftly when processing data and share official documents through voice and video.