Malawi Digital Economy Strategy

Supporting inclusive wealth creation
February 2021
Malawi'sDigital
Economy Strategy

Malawi Digital Economy Strategy 2021-2026
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements.................................................................................................................................................4
Introduction................................................................................................................................................................5
Framework..................................................................................................................................................................7
Vision............................................................................................................................................................................8
Digital Core.............................................................................................................................................................. 12
Network Access................................................................................................................................................. 13
Device Access..................................................................................................................................................... 17
Skills and Education......................................................................................................................................... 22
Digital Services....................................................................................................................................................... 26
e-Trade................................................................................................................................................................. 27
Digital Financial Services................................................................................................................................ 31
Digital Government ......................................................................................................................................... 36
Digital Solutions .................................................................................................................................................... 43
Agriculture........................................................................................................................................................... 44
Health.................................................................................................................................................................... 49
Digitally Traded Services................................................................................................................................ 53
Appendix .....................................................................................................................................................................1
Digital Core: Network Access..........................................................................................................................2
Digital Core: Device Access..............................................................................................................................4
Digital Core: Skills................................................................................................................................................6
Digital Services: e-Trade ...................................................................................................................................8
Digital Services: Digital Financial Services............................................................................................... 10
Digital Services: Digital Government......................................................................................................... 12
Digital Solutions: Agriculture ....................................................................................................................... 14
Digital Solutions: Health ................................................................................................................................ 16
Digital Solutions: Digitally Traded Services ............................................................................................ 18

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LIST OF ACRONYMS
Abbreviation Definition
2FA Two-factor Authentication
AIP Affordable Input Programme
BPO Business Process Outsourcing
CPFL Consumer Protection and Financial Literacy
DQM Department of Quality Management
EDRMS Electronic document and records management system
EHR Electronic Health Records
ESW Electronic Single Window
FDI Foreign Direct Investment
G2P Government-to-Person
GBS Global Business Services
GDPR General Data Protection Regulation
GNI Gross National Income
HDI Human Development Index
ICT Information and Communication Technology
IoT Internet of Things
IPP Independent Power Producer
ISP Internet Service Provider
IT Information Technology
ITO IT Outsourcing
KYC Know-Your-Customer
MACRA Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority
MERA Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority
MITA Malawi Information Technology Authority
MNO Mobile Network Operator
MoEST Ministry of Education Science and Technology
MoF Ministry of Finance
MoI Ministry of Information
MOOC Massive Open Online Course
MPC Malawi Postal Corporation
MRA Malawi Revenue Authority
MSCTP Malawi’s Social Cash Transfer Programme
MUST Malawi University of Science and Technology
NAMIS National Agriculture Management Information System
NRB National Registration Bureau
NRIS National Registration & Identification System
NSO National Statistics Office
ODL Online Distance Learning

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OPC Office of the President and Cabinet
PHC Primary Healthcare Facilities
PKI Public-Key Infrastructure
POS Point of Sale
PPPC Public Private Partnership Commission
PV Photovoltaics
RBM Reserve Bank of Malawi
SPV Special Purpose Vehicle
UBR Unified Beneficiary Registry
USF Universal Service Fund

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Introduction
The traditional pathways to development and prosperity are becoming outdated1
, and
developing countries increasingly look to technology to leapfrog to success. Developing
countries have a new advantage as they can avoid technological lock-in and antiquated
systems to deploy new innovations at scale. This brave new digital world presents a range of
opportunities for countries like Malawi to forge new pathways to inclusive growth. Malawi can
bypass traditional development pathways by utilising the latest technologies to solve the
toughest development problems. Leveraging these technologies, however, requires a
concerted and coordinated effort at unlocking the digital economy to galvanise growth in
‘traditional’ sectors like agriculture, industry and services. It is also in the universal extension
and use of ‘basic’ digital technologies like mobile phones and broadband internet that
significant impact can be achieved through systems that leverage network effects.
Malawi in the Digital Age sets out a national digital economy strategy covering the 5 year
period of 2021 to 2026. This strategy was crafted based on the digital economy toolkit
developed by Digital Pathways at Oxford which seeks to shift the digital technology discourse
away from automation-based job destruction and towards a more practical discussion on how
developing countries should prepare to forge new tech-enabled pathways to inclusive growth.
The strategy was laid out after extensive research and a rich consultative and collaborative
process led by Malawi’s National Planning Commission, the Office of the Chief Secretary and
the Reserve Bank of Malawi. These entities, stakeholders and advisors ensured the process and
its outcomes are aligned with local development priorities. This process was supported by
Genesis Analytics and Digital Pathways at Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government.
This strategy comes at a crucial time as Malawi’s long-term development aspirations have
been revisited and defined. Malawi has entered into a new long-term economic planning
cycle given the conclusion of ‘Vision 2020’. Malawi 2063 expresses the Vision and development
aspirations for Malawians. By 2063, Malawians aspire to have a Malawi that is an inclusively
industrialized upper middle-income country with wealthy and self-reliant citizens. Much is at
stake: Malawi must overcome its development challenges to achieve shared prosperity for all.
While the Malawian economy has seen exports rise over the years, this has largely been in
unprocessed agricultural products as the sector is largely made up of low-productivity
smallholder farmers. Economic diversification has fallen dramatically since the 1990s while the
manufacturing sector has also seen significant de-industrialisation since the 1990s, partly due
1
For example, low-cost manufacturing was a rapid pathway to inclusive growth for many developing
economies in South-East Asia during the 1970s and 80s. However, this pathway is now largely closing
off for developing economies due to the impact of automation displacing low-cost labour, and due to
the reshoring of value chains to more developed markets.

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to privatization of State Owned Enterprises. Urbanisation has accelerated, but this is also
driving the proliferation of slums. Trade is constrained by significant barriers, due in no small
part to Malawi’s landlocked status, and the high cost of doing business making it difficult to
attract domestic and foreign direct investments. Provision of public services inefficient, and
capacity to track implementation of national development plans is one of the biggest
challenges that derail development. A holistic approach is required to address these pressing
challenges.
This strategy was guided by an initial opportunity and digital readiness assessment and the
formation of working groups to collect input and guidance on the strategy’s contents. The
opportunity assessment identified key opportunities for Malawi to achieve its development
objectives by leveraging digital technologies. This yielded six core thematic areas of
opportunity upon which the working groups were established. These were: human capital
development; agricultural productivity and commercialisation; private sector dynamism;
economic infrastructure; enhanced public sector performance; and industrialisation and
urbanisation. These working groups included stakeholders from relevant sectors and industries
across the public sector, private sector and development partner community to give their
expert opinions on the subject matter. Alongside this process, a digital readiness assessment
was conducted to assess the capacity of Malawi’s digital economy ecosystem to enable the
identified opportunities. The strategy builds on these inputs by outlining the actions and
interventions needed in the short to medium term to support the digital economy and
ultimately accelerate achievement of Malawi’s aspirations of inclusive wealth creating and self-
reliance.

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Framework
The digital world is made up of many parts that cut across the economy and society in
different ways. This has resulted in a number of conceptions and models of the digital
economy. Focus is often on the highly technical digital elements such as networks, devices and
data. However, the underlying structures of the economy, physical elements such as
infrastructure, and the availability of skills required to interact with the digital economy are
equally relevant. Rather than supplant existing areas of the economy, digital technologies
augment and streamline existing processes to support more efficiency across economic
activities. Moreover, digital technologies have unique properties to connect sectors and
markets that may not traditionally be interlinked. The diversity of the digital economy and
differences in maturity across different markets require a framework that best reflects Malawi’s
needs and objectives.
This strategy views the digital economy as composed of three components: the digital
core, digital services and digital solutions.
The Digital Core provides the foundations
upon which the digital economy
operates. This includes skills and
education, device access, and network
access needed to facilitate safe and
affordable participation in the digital
world.
Digital Services offered by the public and
private sector enable the operation of the
digital economy. This includes digital
government which enhances public
sector performance, digital financial
services that enable transaction and financial inclusion, and eTrade that provides access to
local and international markets.
Digital Solutions transform the performance of established sectors to improve competitiveness
and create new areas of opportunity. This includes the application of digital technologies in
agriculture, health, and in the rise of digitally traded services.
The following strategy is divided into these three layers. Within each of these layers, three
priority areas and their targets are specified. These targets reflect the outcomes the strategy
would like to achieve by 2026. Achieving each of these targets requires execution on a range
of actions that overcome blockages that currently prevent their realisation. Each action should
be implemented in one of three time-frames all within five years. The strategy furthermore

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details the parties responsible for implementation and proposes potential financing sources.
Moreover, the long-term vision for the strategy as captured by the strategy’s targets is
captured below.
Vision
Looking into Malawi’s future reveals a country ablaze with potential for economic
development and prosperity. Malawi means ‘flame of fire’, embodied in the incandescent
national flag which is evocative of the rising sun on the waters of Lake Malawi. While for some
time Malawi’s economic fire has cooled, it is once again sparking to life at the possibilities
presented by new digital technologies and their application for development.
Digital technologies hold the promise to exponentially transform all sectors of the
economy. There are innovations in irrigation that use Internet of Things (IoT) to monitor water
usage and plant growth; simple internet searches that give a child access to all the knowledge
of the world; medical diagnosis with a cell phone; 3D printers that can make complex
components for production in minutes; and, new clean energy sources that can power a home
through sunshine. These inventions, at scale, have the power to transform economies and
societies, unlocking massive value.
The new core of Malawi’s digital development agenda is inclusive wealth creation which
offers Malawians access to a prosperous economy. This objective is at the centre of
Malawi’s revised long-term development plan, MW2063. Underpinning this is a focus on three
overarching and interdependent objectives:
commercialisation of agriculture,
industrialisation and urbanisation.
• Commercialisation of agriculture targets
the transformation of the smallholder-
dominated agricultural sector,
increasing productivity and efficiency
which will catalyse change across the
broader economy.
• Industrialisation is the focus on the
emergence of secondary and tertiary
sectors to enhance domestic value
addition and create new sources of
economic opportunity.
• Urbanisation encompasses the creation of new jobs in urban centres and secondary
cities, increased incomes and improved living standards.

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Executing on this vision will result in a structural transformation of the economy and
improved outcomes for Malawians. At present, Malawi’s economy ranks poorly in global
rankings of GDP per capita, a low Human Development Index (HDI) value and high measures
of inequality. Moreover, domestic debt is rampant while Malawi is highly donor dependent
with nearly half of the national budget deriving from foreign aid. Inclusive wealth creation will
increase GNI per capita, HDI and distribution of income and will allow Malawi to become a
more self-reliant country. The following figure illustrates the significant gains expected from
Malawi’s long-term national development plan.
Figure 1: Key indicators for economic development in Malawi2
Digital technologies will radically transform the economy and, if correctly leveraged, will
forge new pathways to inclusive growth. Technologies like AI, the Internet of Things (IoT),
blockchain, data analytics and digital platforms will have applications across all sectors from
agriculture and manufacturing to services, law and governance to finance and trade. Contrary
to the commonly expressed anxiety around technology change, this can unlock potential for
more inclusive economic development rather than destroying it.
The first step towards achieving this is ensuring that the foundations of the digital economy
are sound and inclusive. This relates to core enablers like network access, power, devices and
skills that ensure that all Malawians can participate in the digital economy. Internet usage and
broadband coverage must be increased to a majority of Malawi’s population by 2026.
Concurrently, device ownership is to be increased from 51% to 80% of the population, with
2
Targets from Malawi’s High Level Vision Indicators (2020-2063).

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energy access accelerated by the adoption of renewable energy. Interventions in digital
education will raise the pass rate of secondary school examinations from 50% to 80% and
increase the availability of digitally relevant skills for all Malawians.
Next, digitisation in financial, trade, and government services must enable Malawians to
transact, access markets and benefit from critical public services. E-commerce will flourish
as digital interventions reduce trade compliance costs and time by over a third. As goods
become more affordable, increasing mobile money accounts by 30% will mean more
Malawians can transact electronically, helping businesses thrive and new products to emerge.
Underpinning all of this is universal use of the National ID which will enable both the private
and public sector to integrate seamlessly with banks, government services and national
databases - realising government digitization objectives and greatly improving service
delivery.
A strong digital core and well-developed digital services will enable critical sectors such as
agriculture, and health, and support the rise of digitally traded services to ignite rapid
economic growth and create employment opportunities. In agriculture, the use of digital
extension services, digital platforms and access to data on the agricultural sector will help
modernise farming practices and commercialise the sector - raising the average farm family
earnings from USD 1,800 to USD 2,250. mHealth applications will allow Malawians to access
life-saving information without traversing the long journey to the nearest hospital, and health
care workers will be supported by digital diagnostic applications that may even be more
effective than humans at diagnosing ailments - increasing life expectancy by an average of 2
years. The information and communication sector has been fast growing in Malawi. Further
exploration of digitally traded services opportunities will see the creation of an additional
50,000 jobs in digitally traded services and a doubling of ICT service exports to 4% of total
exports by 2026.

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Malawi’s vision of an inclusive and thriving digital economy by 2026 is critical to
achieving the country’s inclusive wealth creation objectives in agriculture,
industrialisation and urbanisation. To seize the opportunities presented by the digital
economy, Malawians must be supported to meaningfully participate in the digital economy.
This must be, ultimately, affordable. In this, the country will go a long way towards its new
long-term development objectives. These sparks will light the hot flame of Malawi’s economy.

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Digital Core
The digital core layer relates to the foundational technologies and skills that enable the
digital economy. These are the basic requirements that allow for digital services and
applications to be deployed. This entails network and ICT infrastructure; device and energy
access; and, skills and education. It is called the core as it is the nucleus of the digital economy,
from which all connections and linkages must stem. Individuals, businesses and governments
operating in the digital economy rely on networks to connect with others, use devices as the
primary interface, and must hold the skills required to safely and effectively participate. Only
upon this solid core, digital services and digital solutions can be realised.
The three priority areas of the core layer seek to increase digital inclusion, promote
access to the digital economy and establish the basic foundations of the digital
economy. The targets for each of these priorities are highlighted in the following graphic and
explained below.
To enable the digital core, firstly internet usage and broadband coverage will be increased,
allowing more Malawians to access the internet affordably. This will be achieved through
regulation, stimulating investment into necessary ICT infrastructure and correcting market
conditions to ensure service providers can offer more affordable data.
Secondly, device access, along with energy access, is a prerequisite for digital inclusion.
Increasing device ownership by reducing the purchase costs of devices lower barriers to entry
and drive high value participation in the digital economy. Ensuring these new participants have
access to affordable energy to support these devices is critical. This will be driven by widening
access to off-grid, renewable energy charging solutions that support individuals and their
households. These solutions are more cost-effective and faster to deploy than extension of the
national-grid and complement the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority ongoing efforts to
drive micro-grid investments.
Thirdly, the digital core will deliver on improving digital literacy and increasing the availability
of relevant skills needed to participate in a modern and digital economy. The skills component
of the core will support remote education and up-skilling opportunities, and increase support

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to current learners. These activities will crowd-in resources and people to rapidly achieve a
critical mass of digital participation to stimulate Malawi’s digital economy. This critical mass
will create spill over effects throughout the economy, stimulating demand and enabling
additional layers of the digital economy, which ultimately enable economic development
through increased competitiveness, accelerated growth, and the creation of jobs.
Network Access
Network access is a critical enabler for facilitating digital access across all aspects of
Malawi’s society and economy. Network access enables people, government and businesses
to connect with one another and provides the foundation for a digital economy. Network
access needs to be universal, affordable, high-quality and provide bandwidths that meet the
needs of a wide variety of stakeholders. This access furthermore needs to be extended
inclusively to ensure it contributes meaningfully to improved employment outcomes, higher
incomes and greater access to opportunity. Mobile network coverage is critical to achieving
universal coverage as it enables connectivity through mobile devices whilst broadband
coverage is more important for data intensive activities. Although Malawi has decent levels of
network coverage, fixed broadband coverage remains low. Network quality can also be
volatile, as many cables running cross-border consistently require maintenance. Data prices
are favourable when compared to neighbouring countries but remain unaffordable for the
majority of Malawians. There are several regulatory and structural issues that underpin these
costs and constrain the efficacy and development of affordable and fully accessible networks.
Table 1: Malawi’s 2026 Digital Economy objectives for Network Access
2026 Objective Actions required
Potential
Financing
source
Responsible
parties
Timelines
USD 2.10 per GB of
prepaid mobile data
Establish a special purpose
vehicle (SPV) to build a fibre
backbone from Nacala to
Lilongwe and purchase the
ESCOM’s domestic fiber.
SPV; World
Bank
ESCOM; MITA;
Private Sector;
ISPs
3 years
Mandate infrastructure
sharing of ICT providers
MACRA MACRA 1 year
Optimise the allocation of
spectrum
MACRA MACRA 1 year
Phase-out MACRA’s 3.5%
tax on ICT provider turnover
MACRA MACRA 1 year

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Phase-out the 10% excise
on data and text package
purchases
MACRA MACRA 1 year
Enforce a 30-month
graduated price path
through MACRA to achieve
USD 2.10 per GB by 2026
MACRA MACRA 5 years
95% of the population
have broadband
coverage
Subsidise OPEX and CAPEX
of targeted infrastructure
extensions through the
Universal Service Fund (USF)
USF
USF; MACRA;
MNOs
5 years
Stimulate demand with data
vouchers for end-users in
newly covered areas
through the USF
USF USF; MACRA 5 years
Malawi’s 2026 Digital Economy target for network access is increasing internet usage to
80% of the population and broadband coverage to 95% of the population by 2026. Realising
this target requires executing on 8 actions to achieve 2 objectives, as captured in Table 1.
Objective 1: The cost of prepaid mobile data is USD 2.10 per GB. Mobile data needs
to be affordable to support wide participation in the digital economy. When compared to
peers, prepaid mobile data in Malawi is inexpensive at USD 4.76 per GB, however this remains
unaffordable for many people who have low levels of disposable income. The unaffordability
of mobile data not only prevents effective participation in the digital economy but excludes
the most vulnerable in society. These high costs are partly attributable to the structure of the
market which is overcapitalised due to high levels of market concentration, low levels of
infrastructure sharing, high maintenance costs due to low quality terrestrial cables, and
significant levels of redundancy. In addition, steadily rising taxes are a consideration for firms,
amongst them a 3.5% tax on turnover. This particular tax strains smaller players in a thin market
with ICT providers transferring these costs onto consumers. Above this, consumers pay hefty
VAT and excise taxes relative to comparator countries. Finally, Malawians tend to ‘pay retail’
and not buy in bulk, this means they do not get the benefits of economies of scale in pricing.
By resolving a number of these binding constraints, the actions contained in this strategy will
move the average price of data significantly closer to the A4AI target cost of 1 GB of data at
less than 2% of monthly income.
● Action 1: Establish an SPV to build a fibre backbone from Nacala to Lilongwe and
purchase the ESCOM’s domestic fiber. High data landing costs are a significant driver
of the costs of mobile data in Malawi. The costs of data imported from Dar es Salaam

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or Beira is driven by their long distribution distances from the coast, and inadequate
regional agreements for infrastructure-sharing with neighbouring countries. While in-
country backbone infrastructure is nearly on par with regional leaders like South Africa,
last mile connectivity remains an issue particularly in rural areas. ESCOM has the most
widespread fibre network in Malawi distributed along its high voltage lines. ESCOM
has however been noted as lacking the capacity to maintain and commercialise the
network effectively and lacks the mandate to serve as a catalyst for drawing down
national prices.
A fibre backbone should be built from Nacala in Mozambique to Lilongwe alongside
the recently built Nacala-Lilongwe railway line. This backbone will help to reduce
domestic prices if owned by a body able and committed to controlling landing costs.
Additionally, this will also improve the quality of service as the area around the railway-
line will be frequently cleared and maintained. An SPV composed of smaller players,
interested larger players, and the public sector such as ESCOM and the planned Malawi
Information Technology Authority (MITA), should finance and own the Nacala-
Lilongwe backbone. This entity should furthermore purchase ESCOM domestic fiber.
This SPV will help to balance interests, pool expertise and drive down pricing. Critically,
fibre network operation must be contracted to the private sector with a provision for a
loan or financing vehicle for smaller players.
● Action 2: Mandate infrastructure sharing of ICT providers. Infrastructure sharing is
limited in Malawi. This is in part driven by perverse market behaviour where large ICT
infrastructure providers respond to high prices charged by public infrastructure
providers by building their own infrastructure and recuperating the expenditure by also
charging high prices. The subsequent duplication of infrastructure, high operating
costs, and high costs to lease for smaller players have resulted in an inefficient market
that is hostile to competition. In order to bring down prices, encourage the proliferation
of smaller ISPs and to create a more efficient market, the regulator needs to mandate
infrastructure sharing of ICT providers. Moreover, The Communications Act 2016 states:
“The Authority shall regulate the implementation of interconnection, access, co-
location and infrastructure sharing, based on the catalogues, interconnection
agreements and framed tariffs enforced by licensees”. Thus, MACRA already has the
power to mandate infrastructure sharing to reduce costs. Savings for infrastructure
sharing can be up to $300m per operator per length of 1000km of cable (for fibre).
● Action 3: Optimise the allocation of spectrum. The effective allocation and
management of spectrum is key to increasing access to cost-effective mobile networks.
The allocation of spectrum should seek to ensure sustained competition while fostering
investment and network extension. More efficient use of spectrum, especially
frequencies that offer a higher quality of service or coverage in rural areas, is critical.
MACRA should meet the needs of industry by optimising the allocation of spectrum

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and offering bands such as 900 MHz to the market. Moreover, a clear long term
strategy for spectrum allocation should be devised. The Communications Act 2016
states: “The Authority may designate bands of frequency spectrum to be used under a
frequency spectrum license, as well as bands of frequency spectrum to be used without
a frequency spectrum license”. Thus, MACRA already has the power to optimally
allocate spectrum and was undertaking this activity to some extent in 2017/18.
● Action 4: Phase out MACRA’s 3.5% tax on ICT provider turnover. There is currently
a 3.5% tax on the turnover of ICT service providers and network operators. As this tax
directly impacts revenues, the costs are often transferred onto customers and add to
an already high tax burden facing businesses in the sector. Moreover, studies have
shown that fees on revenues discourages investment and innovation as they affect
operators equally regardless of investment spend. Furthermore, sector-specific taxes
can lack transparency and often serve as government revenue raising instruments.
Reducing these sectors specific taxes can lead to increases in penetration and usage
which naturally extends the tax base, affecting overall tax revenues in the long term.
MACRA should phase-out the 3.5% tax on ICT provider turnover to support the
emergence of new players, increase the capacity for providers to invest in services and
infrastructure, and enable reductions in consumer facing prices. Concurrent to the
phasing out of the tax on turnover should be the phasing in of a tax on profits equating
3.5% by 2026. MoF should furthermore commit to allocating annual budgetary support
to MACRA that offsets any revenue losses induced by the transition. This should be
funded through expected increases in VAT created by expanding participation in the
digital economy until the 3.5% profit tax is a sustainable source of revenues.
● Action 5: Phase out the 10% excise on data and text package purchases. Usage
taxes and levies account for approximately 26% of the purchase price of mobile data.
This is a significant contributor to the unaffordability of mobile data and compounds
the effects of high network operation costs. MACRA and the MRA should phase out
the 10% excise on data and text package purchases to bring usage taxes and levies to
levels comparable with peers. Eliminating this tax should increase consumption and
offer service providers’ revenues needed to support price reduction and drive profits
to further increase MACRA and MRA earnings.
● Action 6: Enforce a 30-month graduated price path through MACRA to achieve
USD 2.10 per GB by 2026. The preceding interventions will result in significant
reductions in the cost of data. MACRA should enforce a price plan that gradually
reduces the price of mobile data from USD 4.76 per GB to USD 2.1 per GB by 2026.
This is conditional on two factors: firstly, a preliminary study to affirm the validity of the
target price; secondly, that the preceding tax related actions of the strategy have been
executed upon or are in acceptable stages of rollout. This is to ensure that prices are
in line with changing market conditions.

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Objective 2: 95% of the population have broadband coverage. While 88% of the
population have broadband coverage, far fewer access the internet due to affordability of both
data and devices, indicating that there remains more to be done in achieving universal access
to broadband networks. Only 39% of the population has a mobile phone subscription. The
majority of the population are yet to enjoy access to high-speed mobile networks as
underserved communities are not commercially viable for network operators. The majority of
the population is covered by 2G mobile networks, 77% of the population have access to 4G
networks while fixed line coverage is low at around 6% of the population. The lack of affordable
and universally accessible ICT infrastructure has slowed digital development in Malawi. It is
critical to translate access into usage.
● Action 1: Subsidise OPEX and CAPEX of targeted infrastructure extensions
through the Universal Service Fund (USF). The National Broadband policy aims to
implement solutions to fill gaps in last-mile connectivity and deepen access across rural
areas in Malawi. The USF can be leveraged to selectively extend infrastructure to
underserved areas that offer the highest potential for commercial sustainability. To
achieve this, the CAPEX should be directly subsidised and complemented by a 5 year
OPEX subsidy. Ensuring investments service communities that are or will become
commercially sustainable will prevent continued reliance on OPEX subsidies that
consume USF resources which could otherwise be targeted at more impactful
interventions. Therefore, the USF should sequentially prioritise investments from lowest
to highest OPEX requirements. This should be conducted over the course of the
strategy's life.
● Action 2: Stimulate demand with mobile data vouchers for end-users in newly
covered areas through funding by the USF. While the preceding action will support
suppliers of mobile networks, providing newly connected communities with data
vouchers can stimulate demand. These data vouchers offer more affordable access to
newfound mobile connections and offer would-be participants an opportunity to
engage in the digital economy and understand the value it can bring to their lives.
Temporarily lowering barriers to entry for newly connected communities will help to
create long-standing participants that support the commercial sustainability of these
new sites.
Device Access
Devices - and the energy that powers them - are essential for accessing networks and
participating in the digital economy. Affordability is the largest barrier to uptake of mobile
services in Malawi with device costs contributing significantly to this. The UN Broadband
Commission recommends that the total cost of mobile ownership - including a handset and
500 MB of data per month – should be 5% or less of monthly income. The cheapest device

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would still cost the average Malawian 24% of their monthly income. However, many Malawians
do not have access to even a basic mobile feature phone which thereby excludes participation
in the digital economy and the innovative services and applications that could improve their
livelihoods and well-being. Stable and reliable access to energy sources is critical for charging
these devices. Access to affordable and clean energy form part of Malawi’s sustainable
development goals and will enable the country to protect the environment while achieving
urbanisation and industrialisation.
Table 2: Malawi’s 2026 Digital Economy objectives for Device Access
Potential
Financing
source
Responsible
parties
Timelines
Lowering device costs
by 22.5% in 2021 and
15% after 2021
Zero rate device taxes from
2021 to 2023
MRA MRA; MoI; OPC 3 years
Lower VAT on devices to
10% from 2022 (until 90%
ownership achieved)
MRA MRA; MoI; OPC 5 years
Eliminate storage device
levy (5%)
MRA; COSOMA
MRA; MoI; OPC;
COSOMA
1 year
Cost effective device
packages lead to
purchase of 3 million
additional devices by
Malawians
Subsidise 50% (USD 80) of
the costs of 15,000 entry-
level device package
purchases through the USF
each year
USF
USF; MRA;
MERA
3 years
Subsidise 15% (USD 1.20) of
the costs of 400,000 entry-
level device purchases
through the USF each year
USF USF; MRA 3 years
Pilot a procurement
programme for tablets for
10% of total teachers
National
Budget; USF
Ministry of
Education
3 years
have access to electricity
of which 5% is derived
from home solar PV
Subsidise the sale of
household solar PV systems
through pooled
development partner
financing
Ministry of
Natural
Resources,
Energy and
Mining; OPIC;
USAID; Nordic
Development
Fund
ESCOM; MERA;
MRA
3 years

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Deploy public device
charging stations in off-grid
communities
Ministry of
Natural
Resources,
Energy and
Mining; OPIC;
USAID; Nordic
Development
Fund
Ministry of
Lands, Housing
and Urban
Development;
City and
Community
Councils; MNOs
1 year
Revise import standards for
solar PV to ensure
acceptable longevity
Malawi Bureau
of Standards
Malawi Bureau
of Standards
1 year
Malawi’s 2026 Digital Economy target for device access is increasing device ownership
from 51% to 80% of the population and energy access to 20% of the population by 2026.
Realising this target requires executing on 10 actions to achieve 3 objectives.
Objective 1: Lowering device costs by 22.5% in 2021 and 15% after 2021. The
high cost of basic feature phones in Malawi severely impacts device access. The cheapest
feature phones in Malawi cost approximately USD 8 and 4G enabled devices cost about USD
25. The main driver behind the high cost of devices are taxes and tariffs at approximately 23%
of the device purchase price. This limits the majority of the population from accessing essential
communication platforms that could improve their income status and facilitate wealth
creation. Scaling phone ownership is potentially the most important component of achieving
a critical mass of digital participation. The actions that follow target a significant temporary
cost reduction in phones in 2021 and a persistent reduction thereafter.
● Action 1: Zero rate device taxes from 2021 to 2022. In order to significantly reduce
the cost of devices in Malawi, the Malawi Revenue Authority needs to temporarily
mandate the complete zero-rating of device taxes. Zero-rating device taxes will lower
the tax burden on low-income households, allowing them to have more affordable
access to basic mobile devices. This will help to rapidly accelerate purchases and
participation in the digital economy.
● Action 2: Lower VAT on devices to 10% from 2022 onwards until the target of
90% device ownership has been achieved. VAT expenses of 17.5% on mobile phones
are an attractive source of government revenues however make mobile phones
unaffordable for cost-sensitive consumers on the verge of being able to afford a device.
The Malawi Revenue Authority should lower VAT on devices to 10% following the total
zero-rating period until 90% phone ownership has been achieved.
● Action 3: Eliminate the Private Copy Levy. The Malawi Revenue Authority and the
Copyright Society of Malawi introduced a levy on media storage devices, including

20
mobile phones, in 2019. This 5% levy adds another source of device purchase costs
that negatively impacts consumers, inhibits the growth of the ICT sector and obstructs
efforts of making ICT universally accessible.
Objective 2: Cost effective device packages lead to the purchase of 3 million
additional devices by Malawians. The majority of Malawians have low purchasing power
and cannot afford the upfront costs of device purchases. Subsidising the costs of mobile
devices would assist in increasing the number of Malawians who use mobile phones, and by
extension, increase their access to the digital economy. Low electricity coverage - especially in
rural areas - requires supplementary support in the extension of solar PV solutions which are
touched on below and engaged with in more detail in Objective 3.
● Action 1: Subsidise 50% (USD 80) of the costs of 15,000 entry-level device
package purchases through the USF each year. This device package will include a
phone, solar panel, a radio and torch, and some bulbs much like offering by the
business M-Kopa. The whole package costs USD 173 with a two year warranty. Product
packages like these are a means to improving access to both power and devices by
offering an alternative to the lengthy process of connecting to the national grid. Access
to devices and power will ensure that Malawians have greater access to the digital
economy. These packages will be disbursed through MNOs that can claim for the
subsidy by presenting evidence of sales.
● Action 2: Subsidise 15% (USD 1.20) of the costs of 400,000 entry-level device
purchases through the USF each year. This subsidy will ensure that more Malawians
gain access to an entry-level handset at USD 8. Access to affordable devices will ensure
that the amount of people with access to the digital economy reaches a critical mass,
stimulating demand and driving growth across sectors. The disbursement and claims
process should operate similarly to Action 1.
● Action 3: Pilot a procurement programme for tablets for 10% of total teachers.
There are reported to be 37,554 teachers in Malawi in 2019. Access to affordable
devices for teachers (within primary schools) is a necessity that will ensure successful
adoption of the teacher training curriculum proposed within the Skills & Education
section of the strategy. Worryingly, particularly in light of the impact of Covid-19 on
delivery of education globally, many teachers do not have access to tablets or devices
in Malawi. This inhibits adoption of modern teaching methods. Successful rollout of
this pilot will enable the Ministry of Education to test the feasibility of tablet-based
education for school teachers, provide relief to disrupted schools, and accelerate
student's exposure to new technology. Depending on the impact of this initiative, a
further review of the programme can be undertaken after 3 years with a view to scale
nationally.

21
Objective 3: 20% of the population have access to electricity, of which 5% is
derived from home solar PV. Currently, only 11% of the population has access to
electricity, local production falls short of estimated peak local demand, and for many, electricity
is unaffordable. Costly and slow national grid extensions exclude non-urban populations, while
the majority of Malawians still live in rural areas. Constraints in access and stability create
challenges for individual and business productivity and participation in the digital economy.
Since 2017, the energy market in Malawi was reformed resulting in increased investment in
the private energy generation from IPPs. The Renewable Energy Strategy and National Energy
Policy 2018 set out the strategy for renewables which offer significant opportunity in Malawi.
Alongside IPPs feeding into the national grid, micro- and nano- grids are supporting energy
access. While a framework was developed to attract micro-grid investment into Malawi, few
investors have emerged in the space. Ensuring individual access to modern energy to support
charge devices therefore remains a cornerstone of the digital core. Extending access to off-
grid solutions will help to ease the long connection times Malawians face.
● Action 1: Subsidise the sale of household solar PV systems through pooled
development partner financing. Renewable energy sources like solar power are a
promising solution to electrifying rural or otherwise remote communities. Although
there are some solar energy providers operating in Malawi, these systems remain
unaffordable for the majority of the population. In order to make alternative sources
of energy more affordable for Malawians, the Government needs to subsidise the
provision of solar energy systems through pooled development partner financing.
● Action 2: Deploy public device charging stations in off-grid communities.
Community charging stations powered by solar or other energy sources can offer a
cheap and reliable means for people to charge their devices regardless of household
access to electricity. Innovators in Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania have demonstrated
that carts with solar panels that can charge devices can be commercially viable micro-
businesses. Investments in the rollout of these carts and other forms of solar-powered
community device charging solutions should be prioritized.
● Action 3: Revise import standards for solar PV to ensure acceptable longevity.
There are import duties and VAT waivers for solar PV and solar equipment imports for
households. Imported solar PV’s are however often of a sub-standard quality resulting
in frequent breakages which require replacements and ultimately increase long term
costs. The Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority in conjunction with the Malawi Bureau
of Standards should define and enforce Solar PV import quality standards that meet
the needs of Malawians and ensure consumers are protected.

22
Skills and Education
Skills and education are the determining factors of human capital. Levels of human capital
are strongly correlated with income. A well-structured education system produces students
that have received a high-quality education with relevant, practical skills required to grow the
economy. Participation in the digital economy requires a range of skills from basic digital
literacy for the use of devices and applications, to skills in coding and software development
for their production, or emerging advanced skills like data analytics and artificial intelligence.
Malawi’s education system has several factors that have limited its performance such as high
attrition rates for school enrolment from pre-primary through to tertiary, a national curriculum
with no clear focus on digital skills resulting in low levels of digital literacy, and a lack of device
access that enables access to digital learning and content. At the tertiary level, Malawi suffers
from brain drain out of academia and the country itself while teachers are not adequately
trained on ICT and digital during their degrees. Innovative digital learning solutions will
contribute to improved education and skills development especially in light of the new
challenges posed by Covid-19 and inadequate space for learners, especially in secondary
schools and tertiary institutions. These solutions will furthermore help to close the divide
between rural and urban areas, and between public and private schools.
Table 3: Malawi’s 2026 Digital Economy objectives for Skills and Education
Potential
Financing source
Responsible
parties
Timelines
Students obtain high
quality skills with an
80% pass rate in
secondary school exams
Provide open access to
digital content and support
for teachers and students in
all of Malawi’s schools (solar
powered, offline WiFi)
Department of
Education,
Science and
Technology;
FCDO; GIZ;
PPPC
DoEST; PPPC 5 years
Revise teacher training
curriculum to include
blended learning, device
usage for education and
LMS3
Department of
Education,
Science and
Technology;
FCDO; GIZ;
PPPC
DoEST; PPPC 3 years
Malawians have the
practical skills needed to
produce and consumer
digital products and
services
Develop a community
digital champion
programme to deepen
digital literacy and skills
across Malawi
Department of
Education,
Science and
Technology;
MoI; FCDO; USF
Programme
Manager (MoI);
DoEST
3 years
3
LMS- Learning Management System

23
Introduce mandatory
learnerships and project-
based testing in technical
curricula in secondary and
post-school
Department of
Education,
Science and
Technology;
FCDO
DoEST; MUST 1 year
Develop open online
distance learning (ODL)
certificates in areas of
scarce technical skills.
Department of
Education,
Science and
Technology;
FCDO; GIZ
DoEST; MUST 3 years
Malawians have wider
access to higher
education
Pilot community computer
labs that support ODL to
university graduates
Department of
Education,
Science and
Technology;
PPPC; MACRA;
World Bank
PPPC; MoI;
DoEST
1 year
Malawi’s 2026 Digital Economy target for skills and education is raising the pass rate of
secondary school examinations from 50% to 80% and increasing the availability of
digitally relevant skills. Realising this target requires executing on 7 actions to achieve 3
objectives.
Objective 1: Students obtain high quality skills with an 80% pass rate in
secondary school exams. The World Bank ranked Malawi’s overall quality of education as
3.13 out of 7 with the quality of science and math education scored 2.7 out of 7.4
Compounded
by high pupil to teacher ratios at 69:1 and a worryingly low rate of throughput from primary
to secondary school, current pass rates reflect poor schooling outcomes at only 50% of
secondary school students. Digital technologies can support student and teacher access to
relevant materials and offer new and effective forms of teaching.
● Action 1: Provide open access to digital content and support for teachers and
students in all of Malawi’s schools. To expand access to educational resources, which
are often expensive, digital repositories may provide scaled digital content and support
for students. Given that electricity and network access in Malawi remains low, a solar
powered offline solution may be a ‘nut-shell’ device that casts an open wifi network
with a router. This basic device can be used to store and share educational materials,
class notes and tasks, and a host of empowering materials. A number of tertiary
institutions across the globe have consolidated eLibraries of educational content that
can be openly used. Deploying these in Malawi’s schools will not only empower
4
WB TCData360 (2016)

24
students and teachers but also community members interested in learning. The content
of these devices should harmonise with the national curriculum.
● Action 2: Revise teacher training curriculum to include blended learning, device
usage for education and LMS. The teacher training curriculum, particularly in ICT and
digital literacy, has remained ‘analog’ despite new applications of digital technology
and new methodologies to teach traditional subjects. This has resulted in a shortage
of teachers with ICT qualifications and skills. Digital content additions to the curriculum
must be preceded by adequate teacher upskilling and training in the relevant content
and supporting methodologies.
Objective 2: Malawians have the practical skills needed to produce and consume
digital products and services. Digital literacy skills are increasingly required to use devices
such as smartphones, tablets and computers as well as the apps, software and products that
run on them. These can include knowing how to download and use device applications or
transacting through mobile money. Additional skills may be in knowing how to connect to Wi-
Fi, send a file stored on a phone, or navigate the internet in a browser. This is the basic level
of skill required to use digital products and services, before advanced skills such as software
development and other computer science applications that allow people to create them
themselves.
● Action 1: Develop a community digital champion programme to deepen digital
literacy and skills across Malawi. Levels of trust for digital technologies are low -
particularly amongst those who have not been significantly exposed to digital. A
community digital champion can foster engagement and interest in the digital
economy through fun demonstrations of useful applications, training programmes,
guest appearances on radio broadcasts and friendly discussions to convert digital
sceptics to digital believers. This aims to accelerate uptake of digital technologies
amongst first time users. A community digital champion should be a local resident of
a particular community who professes an interest in and can demonstrate familiarity
with digital technologies. Programmes such as these have been highly successful in
Rwanda which transformed into a regional digital player in a short period of time.
● Action 2: Introduce mandatory learnerships and project-based testing in
technical curricula in secondary and post-school. Many Malawians leaving school
and post-school institutions lack the practical skills needed to deliver on the needs of
recruiting businesses. To directly address the lack of practical skills in ICT and the digital
economy, mandatory learnerships with ICT or digital companies will provide new
graduates and learners with work experience that may further streamline entry into the
labour market. Curricula in technical courses should furthermore make use of project-
based testing where students must solve real-world problems relevant to Malawi’s
private sector to better replicate the nature of technical skills needed in the job world.

25
● Action 3: Develop open Online Distance Learning (ODL) certificates in areas of
scarce technical skills. ODL can be a cost-effective and affordable way to offer high
quality courses at scale to any Malawians who require up skilling. These courses could
be developed in partnership with well renowned Malawian universities such as Malawi
University of Science and Technology (MUST), or the University of Malawi. MUST for
example is already exploring the digital delivery of curricula. These certificates can
rapidly scale the availability of skills in high demand in Malawi. In particular, focus
should be placed on cross-cutting technical skills such as IT, database, software
engineering, user interface design, data analytics and cloud computing. In addition, a
course on IP, entrepreneurship and commercialisation of new innovation should
integrate with existing innovation hubs to support the design of new solutions for the
market by graduates. It is critical that these certificates are accepted within the
university community and with the National Council for Higher Education. This has
already been successfully implemented in South Africa at scale through online
universities such as UNISA which currently boasts a third of all higher education
students in South Africa. Other successful examples of scalable online distance learning
are international platforms called massive open online courses (MOOCs) like Coursera,
EdX, Udemy and Khan Academy. At 11 million enrolled students (in 2015), Coursera
enrols far more students than traditional universities for a fraction of the cost.
Objective 3: Malawians have wider access to higher education. Malawians have
limited access to higher education and employment after graduation from secondary
school due to income constraints and difficulties in balancing work and study
requirements. Tertiary education enrolment is low and the perceived quality of vocational
training is poor. Educational gaps continue at a tertiary level where the curriculum is
outdated with many students learning irrelevant skills and software. Broadening access to
higher education will increase the supply of skilled labour and graduates which in turn will
improve opportunities for Malawians and grow the economy.
● Action 1: Pilot community computer labs that support online distance learning
(ODL) to university graduates. Given the significant shortfall in device access,
community computer labs may provide shared facilities, particularly in rural areas
where device access is particularly low, for more Malawians to be able to go online and
enrol in online distance learning courses. MACRA’s Connect A- Programme already has
provisions for internet connectivity across Malawi particularly for community centres
like schools and libraries which can be leveraged for this goal. These community
computer labs will enable Malawians to remain in their local communities and access
full-time courses allowed for the same opportunities as those who can attend university
in person. Increased flexibility to up skill may also allow some to work and study full-
time. There are already some pilots in the works through individual university
programmes.

26
Digital Services
The second layer reflects the most critical public and private sector services that can
stimulate Malawi’s economy. Participants in the digital economy can access a wide range of
products and services regardless of their location. Whereas services such as banking or
business registration would have relied on physical service points, they can now be seamlessly
provided through low cost channels. This access unlocked by the digital core enables
Malawians across all walks of life to use a diverse range of services that support their
livelihoods and wellbeing. This might relate to storing and transferring money through digital
financial services, engaging in trade with non-localised businesses and consumers through e-
commerce, or accessing critical government services.
The three priority areas of the digital services layer seek to improve domestic and
international trade flows, increase access to financial services and scale the reach and
effectiveness of public services. The targets for each of these priorities are highlighted in
the following graphic and explained below.
Digital services will firstly improve the efficiency of cross border trade processes and promote
the emergence of a rich domestic e-commerce ecosystem. These outcomes are critical to
supporting the competitiveness of Malawi’s domestic industries and offering Malawian’s new
sources of income opportunity. This will be achieved through reduction of trade compliance
costs and time, scaling the adoption of e-commerce solutions, and ensuring regulation meets
the needs of the digital economy.
The digital services layer will secondly increase uptake of digital financial services and increase
the sophistication of the financial services sector. This will be achieved by improving the
affordability and range of digital financial services offered in the market and significantly
increasing the adoption of digital payments. A well-functioning digital services sector is a
critical partner to a thriving e-commerce ecosystem.
The digital services layer will thirdly promote the scaling of ID infrastructure while supporting
service delivery and government digitisation efforts. This will support individual and business
access to critical government services and support. This will be achieved by promoting

27
universal utilisation of the National ID for identity verification, digitising critical government
services and ensuring digitisation efforts and interventions are successfully maintained and
upgraded. These outcomes will not only support the delivery of government services but also
improve the government performance and transparency.
e-Trade
E-trade and e-commerce can enable the scaling of businesses, improve market linkages
and create new employment opportunities. While Malawi has made headway in reducing
the time and costs of border compliance, digitisation of cross-border processes can bring
Malawi’s trade processing performance into alignment with, or even surpass landlocked
African peers such as Rwanda and Uganda, and leaders such as Kenya5
. Likewise, e-commerce
platforms and solutions are increasing in popularity but remain nascent with only 2% of the
population making online purchases in 20176
. E-commerce can grow businesses’ networks of
customers quickly and cost-effectively - critical to wealth creation through the informal and
emerging businesses that dominate Malawi’s private sector.
Table 4: Malawi’s 2026 Digital Economy objectives for e-Trade
Potential
Financing
source
Responsible
parties
Timelines
Compliance costs of
USD 312 for export and
USD 250 for import
Compliance time of 100
hours for export and 80
hours for import
Expedite deployment of the
Electronic Single Window
(ESW) with a focus on
process automation and
border agency integration
UNCTAD MoT; MRA 1 year
Introduce an import duty
and tax exemption for low
value goods imports
UNCTAD;
World Bank
Malawi Trade
and Investment
Centre; MRA
1 year
Pilot a cargo monitoring
programme for pre-emptive
processing
Ministry of
Trade and
Industry;
UNCTAD
Malawi Trade
and Investment
Centre; MRA;
MoT
5 years
590,000 Malawians use
the internet to buy
goods online
Expedite implementation of
the national addressing
system
UNCTAD
Ministry of
Lands, Housing
and Urban
5 years
5
OECD. 2020. Global Trade Facilitation Index
6
Global Findex Database, World Bank, 2018

28
Development
Pilot a parcel locker service
to support last mile delivery
GIZ
Malawi Posts
Corporation
(MPC)
3 years
Forthcoming regulation
that facilitates e-
commerce and the
digital economy is
contextually relevant
Develop agile approaches
to regulation that can help
to quickly close identified
regulatory gaps
MoI; GIZ
RBM; MoT; MoI;
MACRA; MERA;
MUST
3 years
Develop a data protection
act with small business
exemptions
GIZ
Ministry of
Information
3 years
Malawi’s 2026 Digital Economy target for e-trade is reducing trade compliance costs by
37% and time by 31% to increase competitiveness and e-commerce adoption. Realising
this target requires executing on 7 actions to achieve 3 objectives.
Objective 1: Compliance costs of USD 312 for export and USD 250 for import,
and compliance time of 100 hours for export and 80 hours for import. Malawi
currently faces document and trade compliance costs of USD 585 for export and USD 305 for
import, and 153 hours for export and 110 hours for import7
. High compliance costs and long
compliance time is driven by reliance on manual processes for trade facilitation where Malawi
underperforms in indices measuring automation in cross-border processes and border agency
cooperation8
.
● Action 1: Expedite deployment of the Electronic Single Window (ESW) with a
focus on process automation and border agency integration. Malawi is in the late
stages of planning for the deployment of a national ESW following completion of
feasibility studies. An ESW is critical to improving trade efficiency and reducing costs
by enabling paperless processing and the facilitation of e-payments9
. It is vital that the
deployment of the ESW is expedited to support the forthcoming scaling of Malawi’s
7
World Bank. 2020. Global Doing Business Report
8
OECD. 2020. Global Trade Facilitation Index
9
UNCTAD. 2020. Malawi Rapid eTrade Readiness Assessment.

29
domestic economy. This was observed in Rwanda where the ESW contributed to a fall
in import release time of almost 40% in its first four years of operation10
.
● Action 2: Introduce an import duty and tax exemption for low value goods
imports. High relative import costs for low value goods impedes the uptake of e-
commerce. Import duty and tax exemption for low-value imported goods should be
introduced to widen business and consumer imports for consumption and resale in
Malawi11
.
● Action 3: Pilot a cargo monitoring program for pre-emptive processing. The East
African bloc has scaled the Regional Electronic Cargo Tracking System (RECTS). First
developed by Uganda, this system monitors the movement of goods from their offload
at coastal ports in neighbouring countries until delivery in Uganda. This system enables
pre-processing of these goods to reduce cross-border processing times and offers
real-time tracking of supply chains to enable responsive measures to accidents and
theft. Developing a similar system would offer Malawi the same trade enabling benefits
and opportunities for innovation in domestic and cross-border logistics services.
Objective 2: 590,000 Malawians use the internet to buy goods online. Currently
only 190,000 Malawians use the internet to buy goods online and few businesses offer formal
e-commerce channels, instead (and infrequently) relying on sales through communications
applications such as WhatsApp and Facebook12
. In addition the Malawi Postal Corporation
(MPC) is not yet positioned to enable e-commerce and there are few logistics providers13
.
Although access to and the affordability of devices, network connectivity and digital financial
services are critical impediments, the nascent logistics and undeveloped physical address and
postal code system is an additional barrier to uptake. By offsetting these challenges, Malawian
businesses and consumers will be better positioned to participate in e-commerce.
● Action 1: Expedite implementation of the national addressing system. The lack of
street addressing is one of the main barriers to investment in the e-commerce and
logistics space in Malawi. This lack of an addressing system increases the operational
costs of couriers and logistics service providers14
. Although MACRA is implementing
the national addressing system, this has only been rolled out in some areas of Blantyre
and Lilongwe. It is critical that implementation across the entire country is expedited
10
C. Nizeyimana & L. De Wulf. 2020. Rwanda Electronic Single Window supports trade facilitation
11
12
13
14

30
in order to fully reap the benefits of e-commerce and increase investment in the e-
commerce sector.
● Action 2: Pilot a parcel locker service to support last mile delivery. Universal
addressing in Malawi will likely be an extensive process. A parcel locker service would
support last mile delivery for e-commerce orders without the need for universal
physical addresses. Parcel lockers consolidate deliveries to a single, secure and easily
accessible location. This can significantly reduce the complexity of reaching clients and
decrease costs where last-mile delivery can account for 50% of total parcel delivery
costs. These solutions allow consumers to track their parcels via a mobile application
or SMS and alert consumers when the parcel has been delivered to the locker, and have
been successful in markets like South Africa and in East Asia. This solution should be
piloted to explore its role as a cost-effective and efficient means to scaling e-commerce
while addressing is underway.
Objective 3: Forthcoming regulation that facilitates e-commerce and the digital
economy is contextually relevant. Digital technologies, rapid innovation and their ever-
quickening adoption will continue to create new and unforeseen risks in Malawi and across
the globe. Regulators are therefore faced with the challenging task of balancing the need to
protect consumers, businesses and the economy without impeding businesses aspiring to
deliver innovative products and services. Malawi has many of the regulatory foundations in
place needed to support e-commerce and the digital economy. However, agile and responsive
approaches to regulation will be needed to ensure the regulatory environment’s continued
adaptation to changing conditions. These approaches should support the design of context-
relevant regulation that speaks to the specific needs and desires of Malawian businesses,
consumers and the economy as a whole.
● Action 1: Develop agile approaches to regulation that can help to quickly close
identified regulatory gaps. Regulators are often slow to adapt regulation to emerging
technologies and often at a distance from innovators who have a firm technical grasp
of how these technologies work. Likewise, innovative digital products and services
often cut across multiple regulators’ areas of supervision creating uncertainty. This can
lead to uncertainty in emerging technologies - the financial services sector offers key
examples of these challenges as it relates to mobile money, cryptocurrency,
crowdfunding, or even AI-enabled automated decision making. Safely identifying and
closing regulatory gaps without impeding innovation in e-commerce specifically, and
other areas of digital innovation, requires collaborative approaches amongst regulators
and between regulators and innovators. Malawi’s financial services and e-commerce
sectors offer an excellent opportunity to test these approaches. Effort should be
targeted at establishing a cross-regulator working group from relevant regulators in
these two areas to identify and close emerging and regulatory gaps. Adopting risk-

31
based approaches to the design of regulation will also reduce the risk of over
regulating. This working group should also consider participation from the private
sector to close any gaps in understanding between the two stakeholder groups.
● Action 2: Develop a data protection act with small business exemptions. Stringent
data security and privacy regulation is critical in the development of e-commerce
specifically and the digital economy generally. Protection of personal data in Malawi
needs to reflect the impending growth of individual participation in the digital
economy and support trust in participating in the digital economy without depending
on unnecessarily onerous compliance requirements on Malawian businesses. Malawi is
in the process of designing an explicit data protection law. This will close gaps left by
the Electronic Transaction and Cyber Security Act of 2016 which contains some of the
foundational elements needed to protect personal data. Malawi’s data protection
legislation should reflect the maturity and specific needs of the domestic digital
economy. While GDPR provides a global standard for data protection, adapting some
of these principles to the context of Malawi is critical. Malawi’s data protection law
should therefore be finalised and enforced as soon as possible. This framework should
ensure complete independence of a data protection regulator. It should also offer
exemptions for small businesses in appropriate areas such as documentation or
processing. Finally, compliance with data protection legislation is not only driven by
the regulator’s capacity for enforcement but also business knowledge of the legislation
and capacity for compliance. Sensitising the public to the legislation and providing
businesses with openly accessible data protection compliance training programmes
will be key in ensuring market-wide understanding of and compliance with the
legislation.
Digital Financial Services
Digital technologies are key to increasing access to affordable financial services needed
to support economic wellbeing and participate in the digital economy. Dynamic
economies are supported by a diverse range of relevant financial products and services. Micro-
businesses often rely on personal financing for working and growth capital. Financial services
which facilitate payments, transfers, savings and insurance are key to enabling individuals and
businesses to transact and operate on a daily basis. Digital financial platforms and services are
growing in adoption in Malawi - driven largely by the mobile money ecosystem. These mobile-
delivered and lost cost solutions allow formerly excluded and underserved customers to shift
from cash-based transactions to mobile-based applications that are easily accessible and
facilitate instant transactions. Modernisation of and increased access to financial services will
support the emergence of new sources of value and opportunity and enable inclusive wealth
creation in Malawi. These services are fundamental to enabling e-commerce and digital
government and enable businesses across all sectors of the economy.

32
Table 5: Malawi’s 2026 Digital Economy objectives for Digital Financial Services
Potential
Financing
source
Responsible
parties
Timelines
Malawians have
affordable access to a
diverse range of financial
services and products
Ensure transparency and timeous
revision to pricing for use of the
National ID for identity
verification.
UNCTAD RBM; NRB 3 years
Support standardisation of KYC
requirements of low-risk banking
clients.
FinMark
Trust; UNDP
RBM; BAM 3 years
Publicise all activities in the
regulatory sandbox and develop
formal participation
requirements and benefits
FinMark
Trust; RBM
RBM 1 year
made or received a digital
payment during 2026
Develop needs-based financial
literacy programmes that drive
positive behaviour and trust
FCDO
RBM; MoEST;
MoI
3 years
Mandate the zero rating of
USSD-delivered financial services
FinMark
Trust; UNDP
RBM 1 year
Leverage existing and pilot new
digital infrastructure to digitise
government and cash grant
payments.
FinMark
Trust; UNDP
RBM 3 years
Cap variable point of sale (POS)
fees at 0.5% of value
FinMark
Trust; UNDP
RBM 1 year
Malawi’s 2026 Digital Economy target for digital financial services is a 30% increase (2.1
million) in the number of mobile money accounts and a financial market development
index score of at least 5 out of 7. These mobile money accounts should furthermore have a
90% activity rate which would reflect increases in activity across all mobile money accounts
form the current 61% level. The financial market development index measures the efficiency
of the financial services sector as well as the trustworthiness and confidence of formal financial
institutions. A higher financial market development index score indicates a more efficient and
sophisticated financial sector where financial services are affordable and meet both individual

33
and business needs. Realising this target requires executing on 6 actions to achieve 2
objectives.
Objective 1: Malawians have affordable access to a diverse range of financial
services and products. There is limited access to financing for both businesses and
individuals in Malawi. The low level of financial inclusion in Malawi15
, in terms of availability of
credit and capital, has implications for economic growth. Entrepreneurs struggle to access
capital, while start-ups and more mature businesses struggle to access funding which slows
the rate of innovation. Individuals such as informal traders and farmers likewise have limited
access to debt facilities. Underdeveloped credit infrastructure and high identity verification
charges incur high costs and risks for financial service providers. The following actions will help
to reduce the costs of credit extension, improve customer access to the financial sector and
support innovation.
● Action 1: Ensure transparency and timeous revision to pricing for use of the
National ID for identity verification. Banks have been mandated by the Reserve Bank
of Malawi to use the National ID in the KYC process. Banks in Malawi have recognised
that the national ID provides the essential infrastructure to successfully offer financial
products and services, particularly credit products16 17
. The National Registration Bureau
(NRB) charges financial service providers a fee for identity verification using the
National ID. Failed transactions that require re-authentication are also charged for.
Market observers noted that these verification expenses were onerous. This led to the
development of a tiered pricing schedule and a general reduction of prices to levels
comparable with other countries while still ensuring commercial sustainability of the
NRIS1819
. To avoid future contention, data on usage of the NRIS should be publicised.
Pricing for identity verification should furthermore be revised annually to ensure that
increases in volume are matched by continued falls in unit prices.
● Action 2: Support standardisation of KYC requirements of low-risk banking
clients. Malawian banks have the freedom to tier and define identity verification
requirements based on client risk. This discretion is however narrow in so far as the
RBM issued a directive that all banks should make use of the national ID as the primary
mode of identity verification. Banks should be supported in developing verification
protocols that support them in safely and profitably servicing low-risk, low value (and
15
16
Malawi’s Journey Towards Transformation, Centre for Global Development, 2020
17
Malawi’s national ID offers a means for harmonising personal data across multiple systems and
businesses. This infrastructure is therefore core to establishing a well functioning credit scoring system.
Actions contained in the ‘Digital Government’ section of the strategy speak to how to scale adoption of
the National ID.
18
Stakeholder interviews, 2020
19
World Bank. 2019. Identity Authentication and Verification Fees: Overview of Current Practices

34
therefore low margin) customers. The RBM should mandate a common and simple
single page application for low-risk accounts and develop regulations governing the
use of offline and online KYC verification using the national ID and its card. These
regulations should detail the conditions under which offline KYC is permitted to reduce
verification costs and complexity for low-risk accounts.
● Action 3: Publicise all activities in the regulatory sandbox and define formal
participation requirements and benefits. Regulatory sandboxes offer innovators the
opportunity to experiment, leading to a more competitive and innovative market for
financial services. The RBM currently has a piloting facility for market testing and user
feedback. However, there is limited awareness or advertising of its existence - fintechs
often don’t know about it or how it can be accessed20
. The benefits of participation are
also little known. For example, RBM in selected cases is willing to waive licensing fees
which otherwise act as a significant barrier to entry for innovators. Increased usage of
the sandbox will not only support safe innovation but also promote the regulators’
awareness of innovation in the market. It is therefore critical that sandbox activities,
results and benefits are formally defined and actively publicised.
Objective 2: 50% of the population made or received a digital payment during
2026. As of 2017, only 28% of the population made or received digital payments21
, illustrating
Malawi’s continued dependence on cash. A fully interoperable national switch which facilitates
payments across a variety of financial service providers offers the foundation for a thriving
digital financial services market. The past decade has seen notable adoption of digital financial
services driven in particular by mobile money. Uptake remains commendable with an 8%
increase in the number of mobile money accounts between the third quarters of 2020 and
201922
. Activity on these accounts is below optimal at 62% while rural mobile money agent
density is dropping23
. While offering relevant financial services will be key in drawing
Malawians into the digital financial services ecosystem, additional actions are required. In
particular, this relates to improving public awareness of and trust in financial services, lowering
the costs of non-cash transactions, and driving adoption of digital payments.
● Action 1: Develop needs-based financial literacy programmes that drive positive
behaviour and trust. Knowledge of financial products and services and of consumer
protection remain limited in Malawi, and financial literacy programmes are fragmented
across development partners. Despite this, significant progress has been made with
the adoption of financial literacy in some school curricula and the existence of the
Consumer Protection and Financial Literacy (CPFL) Unit in the RBM. Low levels of
20
21
22
RBM. 2020. National Payments System Reports.
23
RBM. 2020. National Payments System Reports.

35
financial literacy not only depress adoption of financial services, but also create a
number of worrying outcomes. For example, some rural mobile money agents have
been noted for charging undue fees to mobile money users24
. Most Malawians also
consider mobile money solely as a means of transaction and engage in cash-in, cash-
out activity. A lack of awareness and usage of the network for savings results in a high
cost of network operation - most cash-in transactions are conducted in urban areas
and transferred to rural areas where they are cashed out by agents. Ensuring sufficient
cash floats for agents and operating the cash supply chain is therefore costly.
Needs-based financial literacy programmes should be developed to support adoption
and drive positive behaviour. These programmes should build on the RBM financial
awareness campaigns and harmonise with the digital champion programme detailed
in the skills element of this strategy. These programmes should educate priority
consumer groups - such as farmers - on the particular products available to them, and
prioritise educating consumers on expectant charges, mechanisms of dispute
resolution, and mobile money as a savings tool.
● Action 2: Mandate the zero-rating of USSD-delivered financial services. Digital
financial services delivered through USSD are arguably those most accessible due to
the low device requirements. It is imperative that this channel is as affordable as
possible for the majority of the population. The Reserve Bank of Malawi needs to
mandate the zero rating of USSD-delivered financial services in order to increase
uptake of mobile money and other digital financial services.
● Action 3: Leverage existing and pilot new digital infrastructure to digitise
government and cash grant payments. Despite significant progress, government
payments to businesses continue to rely on cheques while public works and Malawi’s
Social Cash Transfer Programme (MSCTP) continue to rely on physical cash. The MSCTP
is furthermore fragmented across a range of development partners who have
independent strategies and processes used for disbursement. The digitisation of
government payments can drive participation in the digital economy and reduce the
costs associated with cash and cheque infrastructure.
This should be achieved through three activities: firstly, the phasing out of cheques for
government payment to businesses should be expedited; secondly, the establishment
of a MSCTP payment working group where members commit to pursuit of the most
efficient and effective means of payment. This group may support the replication of
workable solutions across partners. For example, UNDP has developed a disbursement
process in collaboration with a domestic bank that obliges the bank to biometrically
validate beneficiary identity and requires the bank solve for digital last-mile payment
24

36
in the most suitable means possible25
. This process therefore significantly reduces the
risk of fraud and enhances transparency; thirdly, actioning development partner
interest in piloting a digital Kwacha in a closed community. This pilot will help to
understand the opportunities and risks presented by an additional payment
infrastructure that could deliver on government payments and facilitate P2P and P2B
payments without the need for an account with an MNO or a bank.
● Action 4: Cap variable point-of-sale (POS) fees at 0.5% of value. POS fees need to
be reduced significantly to improve business and consumer uptake of card payments.
Variable POS fees can reach up to 3%26
. These costs would either be passed down to
consumers or borne by the business - both of which depress adoption of the channel
and its infrastructure. The Reserve Bank of Malawi should cap variable POS fees to
support the uptake of card based payment channels. Digital payments - particularly
cards - play a crucial role in facilitating e-commerce transactions.
Digital Government
The digitisation of government operations will scale access to government services and
improve government efficiency, performance and transparency. Malawi is in the early
stages of government digitisation - manual processes are common, data collection and
utilisation is infrequent and access to government services often requires individuals to
physically present themselves at government offices. This is reflected in Malawi’s low (though
rising) global ranking of 165 in the e-Government Development Index and highly variable
stages of and appetite for digitisation between government ministries. Government
digitisation efforts are largely funded by development partners with priority being placed on
shared services and the digitisation of targeted G2P services. While an eGovernment strategy
has been developed and the forthcoming Malawi Information Technology Agency (MITA) is in
the process of being set up, it is critical for government digitisation efforts to focus on high
return areas, scaling current government digital infrastructure, and enhancing coordination
between government departments and the donor community.
Table 6: Malawi’s 2026 Digital Economy objectives for Digital Government
Potential
Financing
source
Responsible
parties
Timelines
25
This process ensures effective usage of available infrastructure and leverages private sector incentives.
It likewise can support effective usage of the Unified Beneficiary Registry (UBR) as discussed in the
Digital Government element of the strategy.
26

37
Malawi’s National ID is
universally used for
identity verification and
service innovation
Improve the performance of
the Affordable Input
Programme (AIP) and social
grant system through
integration with the Unified
Beneficiary Registry (UBR)
and adoption of the
National ID
World Bank
Department of
e-Government;
NRB; MoAIW
3 years
Improve health service
delivery by harmonising
health system individual
identifiers with the National
ID
FCDO; GIZ;
UNDP
Department of
e-Government;
NRB; MoH
3 years
Support the emergence of
innovative services built
using the National ID by
widening access to the
National ID API and
implementing a PKI
World Bank PPPC; NRB 1 year
Widen usage of the
National ID in the design
and delivery of government
services by establishing an
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
and regulating its use
World Bank PPPC; NRB 3 years
The digitisation of
procurement and three
additional services
improves service
delivery and
transparency
Develop an open
eProcurement and unified
eService platform with MPC
as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for
government services
GIZ; World
Bank; JICA
Department of
e-Government;
PPDA
3 years
Scope manual G2C services
in and prioritise digitisation
of three critical services
GIZ; PPPC
Department of
e-Government
(MITA); MoI
1 year
Improve government
efficiency and the
digitisation of back-office
processes through the roll-
out of an electronic
document and records
management system
(EDRMS) in the national
archives.
GIZ; PPPC
Department of
e-Government
(MITA); MoI;
PPPC
3 years

38
Impactful digitisation
interventions are
effectively maintained
and upgraded
Establish MITA as a
centralised coordinating
mechanism and elevate the
ICT Steering Committee to
a high-level forum on ICT
and the Digital Economy
under the VPO
JICA; PPPC; MoI MoI; OPC 3 years
Malawi’s 2026 Digital Economy target for digital government is that the National ID is
universally used for identity verification and supports government service delivery and
digitisation objectives. Realising this target requires executing on 7 actions to achieve 3
objectives.
Objective 1: Malawi’s National ID is universally used for identity verification and
service innovation. Malawi’s national ID is a modern system with wide uptake that offers a
single view of identity. Mass registrations began and were completed in 2017 with over 10
million Malawians currently being registered and more than 9 million holding biometric-
enabled ID cards27
. The system has proved its efficacy being successfully used for voter
registration and identification in Malawi’s 2019/2020 national election and adopted across a
host of government departments and agencies. The national ID is a critical part of Malawi’s
digital infrastructure that can promote the reach and interoperability of digital services
delivered by the public and private sectors. The actions contained in the digital financial
services element of the strategy will enhance its usage for KYC verification. However, those
contained below will drive adoption across fragmented government systems that continue to
rely on alternative person identifiers and deepen its use in the design and delivery of
applications, products and services, as with Aadhaar in India28
.
● Action 1: Improve the performance of the social grant system and the Affordable
Input Programme (AIP) by integrating the AIP and the Unified Beneficiary
Registry (UBR). Malawi has extensive social grant and agricultural support
programmes funded by the government and the development partner community. The
UBR provides information on household eligibility and uptake of social protection
programmes by consolidating information on household socioeconomic status. The
UBR has adopted the national ID for individual identification which will enable the
27
Malik. 2020. Malawi’s Journey Towards Transformation: Lessons from its National ID Project. Center for
Global Development
28
Aadhar is India’s national identity program. The system has on-boarded over a billion individuals who
are all uniquely identified through a 12 digit number and can now have their identities verified through
a range of means. The system is nearly universally used for verification in the public and private sectors,
has adopted open approaches to design and is integrated with national payments infrastructure. This
has supported the emergence of a rich ecosystem of products and services leveraging the system.

39
objectives of improved support targeting and monitoring, and enhanced coordination
amongst social support programme providers. Malawi’s AIP provides households with
fertilizer subsidies to reduce poverty and enhance food security. This extensive
programme relies on the national ID, however suffers from leakages as the system does
not discriminate between farmers and non-farmers to enable accurate disbursement29
.
Integration of the AIP with the UBR and inclusion of a ‘farmer’ data field in the UBR can
reduce leakages to make the AIP more cost-effective and support improved AIP
targeting. This set of data will also widen the information available in the UBR to
provide a more complete view of social support offered and needed across Malawi.
● Action 2: Improve health service delivery by harmonising health system
individual identifiers with the National ID. Malawi’s health sector continues to use
a variety of ways beyond the national ID to uniquely identify individuals in systems and
datasets. While the Ministry of Health and Population has expressed interest in
adopting the National ID as the universal patient identifier, this needs to be deployed
across a range of public and private systems30
. This will require translation of current
patient identifiers to the National ID and adoption of this as a field and means of
identity verification. Doing so would enable access to patient data across health
systems and enable the delivery of health services as discussed later in this strategy.
● Action 3: Support the emergence of innovative services built using the National
ID by widening access to the National ID API and implementing a PKI. Malawi’s
national ID offers the opportunity for developing a rich ecosystem of digital
applications and services that require identity verification. The national ID is
increasingly used in the public sector and has uptake in the private sector where
financial services interface through an API for KYC identity verification. A range of
complementary and value-adding products and services can be further developed
upon this infrastructure. The Aadhaar system in India illustrates this opportunity as a
rich suite of public and private sector services has emerged through wider access to
the platform31 32
. This includes a range of KYC methods including video, document and
data vaults for citizens, citizen background checks, verified digital signatures and
others.
Innovation should be spurred by improving the ID interface, providing technical
documentation detailing connection to the interface33
, and providing controlled access
29
Kenamu & Thunde. 2020. Op-Ed: How to make the AIP more cost-effective. IFPRI
30
For example, the BART system (now EGPAF), the EID/VL LIMS, the National LIMS and the DHIS2 all
utilize different patient primary IDs.
31
Nichol. 2017. A look at India’s biometric ID system: digital APIs for a connected world. CIO
32
Braverman & Kuntz. 2012. Innovation in government: India and Estonia. McKinsey and Company.
33
For example, please see the Aadhaar Authentication API Specification - Version 2.0 documentation

40
for entrepreneurs and innovators to experiment. This should be complemented by the
roll-out of a public-key infrastructure (PKI) to enable innovative products like those in
the Aadhaar example above, and enable alternative certification of identity through
mobile channels such as Two-Factor Authentication (2FA).
● Action 4: Widen usage of the National ID in the design and delivery of
government services by establishing an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) and
regulating its use. Systems operated by government ministries and departments have
varying capacity for integration with the National ID and varying structures and
sophistication of API. While the national ID API provides for point-to-point
connectivity, an ESB will provide for a common point of integration across all systems.
This ESB will therefore allow ministries to leverage and connect to the national ID (and
other government systems) without the need to adapt or develop system-to-system
communication. Ensuring adoption and efficacy of the ESB will require the
development of a policy and regulatory framework that enforces ministry integration
with and usage of enterprise ICT solutions. This activity will support adoption of shared
products and services as discussed in the following objective.
Objective 2: The digitisation of documentation, procurement and three
additional services improves service delivery and transparency. Malawi has made
exceptional progress in the digitisation of business and customer facing services that provide
wider access without the need to present at government service points physically. This includes
Malawi’s emerging e-Tax system which has enabled the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) to
collect 75% of tax revenue online34
, improve efficiencies in revenue administration and ease
the task of paying taxes for citizens, as well as the digitisation of business registration
processes which has improved registration turnaround time and ease. Despite this, many
government services are manually applied for and disbursed and many Malawians are
furthermore without the digital access needed to realise the benefits that digitally delivered
government services offer. Malawi should therefore focus on the further digitisation of
business and citizen-facing government services and the back-office processes that support
them. Investment should furthermore be targeted at mechanisms to broaden access to these
services. These efforts will expand access to government services, reduce opportunity for fraud
and corruption and support government transparency and efficiency.
● Action 1: Develop an open eProcurement and unified eService platform with the
Malawi Postal Corporation (MPC) as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for government services.
Two critical platforms can enhance the performance of the government. Firstly, Malawi
is in the process of establishing a digital procurement platform which should be
expedited. This platform can improve the efficiency and record-keeping of
34
Mkwapatira. 2019. MRA collects 75% of tax through e-payment. Malawi News Agency Online.

41
procurement processes, and enhance transparency and improve fiscal performance if
coupled with investments in making procurement data openly accessible.
Malawi should also invest in establishing a unified e-service platform to ease citizen
and business access and improve visibility of digitised services. While the Digital Malawi
Project has this unified portal within scope of future investments, establishing the MPC
as a point of service that utilises the unified portal will improve delivery for those
without digital connectivity. This may also recover commercial sustainability of the MPC
through new revenue models.
• Action 2: Scope manual G2P services and government processes and prioritise
digitisation of three critical services. A range of citizen and business facing services
continue to be manually processed and require physical applications. For many
government departments, digitisation is a low ranking priority given budget
constraints whereby many government entities spend less than 1% of their annual
budget on ICT expenditures. Scoping manual government services and processes will
provide a means of identifying where to allocate additional finances to digitise critical
services. This scoping should therefore facilitate investment in the digitisation of three
priority government services.
• Action 3: Improve government efficiency and the digitisation of back-office
processes through the roll-out of an electronic document and records
management system (EDRMS) in the national archives. Automating back-office
processes and supporting inter-ministerial data sharing requires records and content
be in a common, digital format. This extensive process should be initiated through the
development of an EDRMS at the national archives. The legislative framework requires
all historical documents be collated and stored through with the National Archives. By
establishing a system of digital storage at the archives, Ministries can be driven to
harmonise standards and formats with the archive EDRMS and develop workflows to
deliver digital documents automatically. This initiative is in early stages and under-
funded.
Objective 3: Impactful digitisation interventions are effectively maintained and
upgraded. Dependence on development partner financing for government digitisation
activities, and siloed approaches to digitisation create challenges in coordination. This
imperfect coordination between and within government departments and development
partners place digitisation efforts at risk. Challenges in coordination and the shortage of
technical skills in Malawi may lead to the imperfect targeting of digitisation investments, and
increase the likelihood of failed projects due to inadequate skills transfer during
implementation, and system maintenance and upgrade following implementation. Improved
coordination and visibility of digitisation initiatives can therefore improve investment targeting
and system sustainability.

42
● Action 1: Establish MITA as a centralised coordinating mechanism and elevate the
ICT Steering Committee to a coordinating body on ICT and the Digital Economy
under the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC)35
. Malawi currently lacks a
shared vision on the digital economy with the public and private sector operating with
independent interests and incentives. In the private sector this has led to instances of
infrastructure duplication while in the public sector an absence of policy harmonisation
and a siloed approach to digitisation. The ICT Steering Committee comprises critical
public and private sector stakeholders and is intended to support national
coordination, however it has not been as effective as it could be. Placing this committee
under the Office of the Vice President and increasing the frequency of meetings will
support execution of Malawi’s digital vision. MITA is a further institution set for
establishment in the short-term which will oversee government digitisation efforts.
MITA’s establishment should be expedited with the institution resourced with highly
competent staff. MITA’s functions are currently being drafted. When established this
should include the following:
● Define and coordinate a government digitisation agenda and roadmap;
● Deepen the availability of skills for system maintenance and upkeep and promote
effective knowledge transfer during development partner funded digitisation
initiatives. This requires MITA ensure that select Malawian government staff are
involved in the management and oversight of these initiatives and not simply their
operation after their establishment;
● Drive inter-ministerial and inter-departmental data sharing and data maximisation for
policy and strategy;
● Support and motivate government Ministries in their migration to the government data
centre when established;
● Promote the usage of open-source softwares and technologies in government systems
to drastically reduce costs, improve flexibility and avoid vendor lock-in;
● Ensure all government systems and applications make use of an open-API to support
integration;
● Support the creation of white-label solutions that can be modified for Ministry-specific
government services and applications;
● Develop and maintain a centralized register of digitalization initiatives and government
systems;
35

43
● Pilot a strategy and policy performance monitoring system in a key ministry.
Digital Solutions
The digital solutions layer relates to the deployment of technologies in specific domains
that offer high developmental returns. Digital solutions are powerful enablers of economic
development because they unlock new business models that can radically reduce costs,
increase efficiency and support service provision to previously underserved populations.
Solutions include examples like precision agriculture, e-learning, telehealth and many others.
Digital solutions arise when digital applications and services are combined within specific
sectors or domains of the economy, enabled by the infrastructure and skills in the digital core.
The solutions layer of this strategy focuses on the priorities of agriculture, digitally traded
services and health.
The three priority areas of the solutions layer seek to improve wellbeing, create new jobs
and sources of wealth, and accelerate economic diversification. The targets for each of
these priorities are highlighted in the following graphic and explained below.
Digital solutions will firstly increase farmer earning by supporting productivity and
commercialisation of the agriculture sector. This will be achieved by scaling farmer access to
inputs and end-markets, enhance farmer practices through digitally delivered services, and
drive investment and innovation through the collation of rich and timeous market data. Digital
solutions will secondly improve Malawian health outcomes by ensuring patients are correctly
diagnosed and treated, and that healthcare resource planning and distribution is based on
optimised. Digital solutions will thirdly create new opportunities for employment by offering
Malawians the opportunity to deliver services remotely and support both local and foreign
businesses in their operations. This will support diversification and dynamism in the public and
private sectors. Scaling a digitally traded services sector will be achieved through developing
a robust and scalable domestic BPO market, targeted interventions to boost local BPO centres
of excellence and attract regional or international players, and mandating government to
become an enabler and procurer of digitally-traded products and services developed in
Malawi.

44
Agriculture
Agricultural productivity and commercialisation are critical to the structural
transformation of Malawi’s economy. Agriculture is the largest contributing sector to GDP
and is a critical source of income for most households employing over half of the Malawian
population36
. Production is concentrated among smallholder subsistence farmers37
while
commercial activity remains nascent. Unlocking latent value of the sector through
commercialisation and formalisation will increase trade, production and quality of output. The
agricultural sector is a building block of the industrialisation process as it provides foundations
for value addition and opportunities for scaling complementary services in backward- and
forward-linked sectors.
Table 7: Malawi’s 2026 Digital Economy objectives for Agriculture
Potential
Financing
source
Responsible
parties
Timelines
Farmers access high
quality inputs and plug
into a rich commercial
market supported by a
variety of platforms
Develop e-verification to
ensure quality of inputs
distributed through the
Affordable Inputs
Programme (AIP)
MoAIWD;
MAIIC
MoAIWD 3 years
Digitise food safety
certification processes to
improve access to export
markets
MoAIWD;
MAIIC; PPPC
MoAIWD 3 years
Pilot IoT-enabled storage
monitoring of national
storage facilities
MoAIWD;
MAIIC; PPPC
MoAIWD 3 years
Digitally delivered
services support modern
farming practices to
increase productivity
Provide government
extension workers with
tablets to use and promote
adoption of digital support
applications
MoAIWD;
Development
partners
Department of
Agricultural
Extension
Services
1 year
Develop an open repository
of common extension
content and farmer
feedback to support
Government of
Flanders
Department of
Agricultural
Extension
Services; Farm
Radio Trust;
3 years
36
Malawi: Systematic Country Diagnostic, World Bank, 2018
37
Ibid.

45
demand driven innovation MoI
Develop public sector
delivered mobile
applications for digital
extension services that
support USSD and voice
functionality for increased
uptake by farmers
MoAIWD; PPPC;
Agriculture
Sector Wide
Approach
Support Project
(development
partner trust
fund managed
by World Bank)
Department of
Agricultural
Extension
Services;
Malawi Forum
for Agricultural
Advisory
Services
1 year
Subsidise the costs of asset
sharing services when
delivered to farming
cooperatives and
associations
MAIIC;
Development
Partners
MoAIWD;
MAIIC; Farmer
co-operatives
and
associations
3 years
Rich and updated data
provides the latest view
on agricultural activity
and supports
innovation, monitoring
and investment
Target additional funding to
expedite the
implementation of the c
(NAMIS) and prioritise
integration with Esoko38
for
pricing information
Agriculture
Sector Wide
Approach
Support
Project;
MoAWID;
Development
partners
MoAIWD; Esoko
3 years
Develop an open-GIS data
repository under National
Statistical Office (NSO)
NSO NSO 5 years
Malawi’s 2026 Digital Economy target for agriculture is to increase average annual farm
family earnings from USD 1,80039
to USD 2,250 through the adoption of agricultural
services and technologies. Realising this target requires executing on 9 actions to achieve 3
objectives.
38
Esoko is an agricultural market intelligence platform that provides market prices over SMS to
smallholder farmers. The platform also offers other essential services such as weather forecasts,
agronomic advice and insurance coverage.
39
Small Family Farms Country Factsheet Malawi, FAO, 2018

46
Objective 1: Farmers access high quality inputs and plug into a rich commercial
market supported by a variety of platforms. Limited control and monitoring of
agricultural inputs has led to the presence and usage of fake and low quality inputs40
. This lack
of input standardisation and tracking makes it difficult for farmers to determine the quality of
inputs, leading to suboptimal crop production and depressed farmer incomes. Furthermore,
outdated post-harvesting techniques and inadequate storage facilities have resulted in post-
harvest storage losses and the deterioration in the quality of perishable agricultural products.
In a 2017 study on post-harvest losses conducted by IFPRI, half of the households interviewed
reported post-harvest losses and recorded losses of between 5% and 12% of farmers’ total
harvest41
. Digital technologies can overcome these challenges to increase agricultural yield,
and improve participation in local and international value chains.
● Action 1: Develop an e-verification process to ensure the quality of inputs
distributed through the AIP42
. The AIP programme has had much success and
supports over 3 million beneficiaries, however the sale of fake inputs remains a
challenge. Farmers, regulatory inspectors and other stakeholders would benefit from
being able to validate the quality and authenticity of individual packs of agricultural
inputs at the point of purchase. An e-verification process would allow farmers to send
a pin code located within the bag of input via SMS to a toll-free number and receive
an instant reply confirming if the product is authentic or fake. This would help to
guarantee that farmers are using high quality inputs needed for high levels of
productivity.
● Action 2: Digitise food safety certification processes to improve access to export
markets. Currently, there are only two laboratories in Malawi that conduct food testing
and certification43
. Limited laboratories and reliance on paper-based application
processes have created an enormous backlog of paperwork and slow turnaround. Food
safety standards are a large barrier for exporting to highly-regulated markets like the
European Union. Digitising food safety certification processes will not only make the
application process faster and efficient, but will give farmers access to export markets
with much higher demand and better prices.
● Action 3: Pilot IoT-enabled44
storage monitoring of national storage facilities.
Malawi has a number of bulk agricultural storage facilities. These facilities collate
outputs and are more sophisticated than traditional methods, however historical
instances of bulk losses in these facilities indicate opportunity to improve their
40
Stakeholder workshop on Agriculture sector, 2020
41
Measuring Postharvest Losses at the Farm Level in Malawi, IFPRI, 2017
42
AIP- Affordable Inputs Programme
43
44
IoT- Internet of Things

47
monitoring and oversight. The IoT, which relies on sensors and actuators connected by
networks to computing systems, allows the storage environment of national granaries,
such as temperature and humidity, to be monitored. Real-time monitoring will enable
effective response to changing conditions and the design of ‘just-in-time’ systems to
reduce waste and preserve agricultural end-products for a longer period of time. This
provides a critical tool in pursuit of commercialisation objectives and accessing
international markets.
Objective 2: Digitally delivered services support modern farming practices to
increase productivity. Manual and outdated farming practices by most smallholder farmers
impedes productivity. This is primarily caused by low levels of agricultural expertise across
smallholder farming communities. A significant shortage of extension workers - where the
ratio of extension worker to farmer is approximately 1:2,50045
- offers a slow means of
overcoming this. Despite the presence of various digital extension service initiatives to close
the physical extension worker gap, there is a lack of coordination and weak implementation.
Furthermore, there is a low mechanisation rate amongst smallholder farmers46
due to the high
cost of using farming equipment in a single smallholding.
● Action 1: Subsidise the costs of asset sharing services when delivered to farming
cooperatives and associations. Asset sharing platforms such as Hello Tractor can
enable smallholder farmers to leverage the latest farming technology at a lower cost.
Delivering these platforms through mobile phones means farmers have access to, but
don’t have to own, machinery that is used for only a few months in a year, is expensive
to maintain and that rapidly becomes obsolete. Land parcel sizes in Malawi are often
too small to make asset sharing on a farm-by-farm basis commercially feasible, as
demonstrated by early efforts from innovators in the market. Targeting farming co-
operatives and associations presents a more affordable option due to economies of
scale. Partially subsidising the costs of asset sharing services when delivered to farming
cooperatives and associations will therefore encourage uptake.
● Action 2: Provide government extension workers with tablets and promote
adoption of digital support applications. The Government of Malawi is hiring
additional extension workers across various districts to close the 43% shortage of
staff47
. Providing these incoming extension workers with tablets that contain extension
service information and applications will support extension worker capabilities and
sensitise farmers to their existence to support adoption. The use of tablets will also
enable extension workers to collect and upload data on farm activity to support
45
Malawi government to employ 400 extension workers this year, Nyasa Times, 2019
46
Malawi: Systematic Country Diagnostic, World Bank, 2018
47
Malawi government to employ 400 extension workers this year, Nyasa Times, 2019

48
national oversight and monitoring. Extension workers will require training on the use
of these tablets and the digital applications that will support their work.
● Action 3: Develop an open repository of common extension content and farmer
feedback to support demand driven innovation. Access to regularly updated and
vetted extension information and services allows farmers to continuously up skill and
support more productive farming practices. An open repository of extension services
content and farmer feedback drawn from extension worker tablets will provide
innovators with a key set of inputs needed to design demand-driven and relevant
products and services. Information on operational extension services will also provide
innovators with a view on what outstanding areas of innovation are available and how
these can complement or support ongoing initiatives.
● Action 4: Develop public sector delivered mobile digital extension services that
support USSD and voice functionality for increased uptake by farmers. Data
intensive applications will impede uptake of digital extension services by smallholder
farmers due to the costs of data and the device. Digital extension services delivered
through USSD and voice make extension services more accessible and feasible for
farmers to use. Developing public sector delivered mobile applications for digital
extension services that support USSD and voice functionality will ensure that farmers
with different literacy levels are catered for.
Objective 3: Rich and updated data provides the latest view on agricultural activity and
supports innovation, monitoring and investment. The lack of a central M&E database and
various donor projects around agricultural information systems have resulted in a fragmented
agricultural information management system48
. In addition to this, manual and infrequent data
collection has resulted in poor quality, outdated and incomplete agricultural data. The National
Agriculture Management Information System (NAMIS) is intended to become the central hub
of all agricultural information in Malawi that provides public access to accurate and timeous
agricultural data. Access to a high quality agricultural data ecosystem is essential for
supporting sustainable policy, short and medium term planning, responsive trade strategy,
and investment decision-making in the agricultural sector. However, implementation of
NAMIS across all districts has been hindered by a lack of financial resources and buy-in49
.
● Action 1: Target additional funding to expedite the implementation of NAMIS
and prioritise integration with Esoko for pricing information. Securing additional
funding is critical for the consolidation and scaling of NAMIS. Sequentially integrating
priority data sources will ensure return on investment and crowd in support. Esoko, a
private company that offers a market intelligence platform, currently collects pricing
information for particular agricultural products to combat price asymmetries that
48
49

49
impede farmers from getting a fair value for their outputs. Collating this and other
pricing information in NAMIS to consolidate pricing information in all districts will
provide farmers, innovators, regulators and government entities with a trusted source
of information.
● Action 2: Develop an open GIS data repository under NSO. An open GIS data
repository will not only provide geo-spatial data needed for agricultural investment
and monitoring purposes but also provide important information critical to the
development of the mining sector and for the development of data-driven strategies
to manage and support urbanisation. For example, researchers and evaluators can use
geo-spatial data to track and understand the performance of crops over the entire life
span of an intervention that was implemented to increase crop yield. The NSO should
be elected as the core-custodian of the repository with direct flows to NAMIS. This
open repository will serve as an important step towards the establishment of an open
data ecosystem which will require the development and implementation of shared
standards for government data.
Health
Digital technologies have a critical role to play in scaling individual access to high quality
healthcare services regardless of location. Malawi’s healthcare sector not only faces the
emerging challenges of COVID-19 but also the ongoing battle against a high disease burden
and infant mortality rate, high levels of malnutrition and relatively low life expectancy. A
shortage of financing and scarce skills compound these challenges while most Malawians live
far away from hospitals. To overcome these challenges, the Ministry of Health has been
conducting health sector planning at all levels to raise the quality of healthcare. Digital
technologies have a critical role to play in supporting access to and the quality of healthcare.
These technologies can support staff at point-of-care through training and mentorship, and
scale the reach of expertise and diagnostic support through telemedicine - all demonstrably
critical during the COVID-19 pandemic. Connecting facilities, digitising records and capturing
operational data can improve monitoring of the sector to optimise resource allocation,
investment and planning. First deployments of digital health initiatives can be traced to 2001
with the Department of Quality Management (DQM) and Digital Health in the Ministry of
Health and Population now responsible for coordinating and scaling digital health initiatives
and infrastructure.
Table 8: Malawi’s 2026 Digital Economy objectives for Health
Potential
Financing
source
Responsible
parties
Timelines

50
Patients are correctly
diagnosed and treated
Pilot a mobile-delivered
mentorship and training
interface for medical
practitioners
B&M Gates
Foundation;
MoH
MoH; MoI 3 years
Develop diagnostic support
applications for primary and
community healthcare
workers
B&M Gates
Foundation;
MoH
MoH; Incubator
Community;
College of
Medicine
3 years
Zero-rate high impact
patient-facing mHealth
applications
MoH
MACRA; MoH;
MNOs
1 year
Healthcare resource
planning and
distribution is optimised
Extend the interoperability
architecture to include
additional systems (priority
of ISS, DHAMIS) and a
functional API
B&M Gates
Foundation;
MoH
MoH 3 years
Support universal utilisation
of Shared Electronic Health
Records through a health
worker tablet program and
solar charging at facilities
B&M Gates
Foundation;
MoH
MoH 3 years
Malawi’s 2026 Digital Economy target for health is increasing life expectancy by an
additional two years while supporting efficient resource allocation. Realising this target
requires executing on 5 actions to achieve 2 objectives.
Objective 1: Patients are correctly diagnosed and treated. An effective healthcare
system requires accurate diagnostics to direct patients to appropriate care and treatment.
These processes rely on the expertise of healthcare staff as well as the outputs of digital
systems and tools. Malawi has the opportunity to improve patient health outcomes through
digital tools that deepen and augment staff capacities, and improve patient capacity to care
for themselves or understand when and how to seek medical expertise.
• Action 1: Pilot a mobile-delivered mentorship and training interface for medical
practitioners. Malawi’s primary healthcare facilities (PHC) are the first point of contact
for the majority of Malawians in need of healthcare services. PHC capacity to provide
high quality patient care is therefore critical for Malawi’s population generally, and the
rural population particularly who are often at significant distance from more

51
sophisticated or specialised care. Malawi’s shortage in healthcare expertise requires
ongoing training and support of medical staff. A mobile-delivered mentorship and
training interface can support the maintenance and scaling of medical staff expertise
and skills by connecting staff to senior or expert peers, or providing access to training
materials. A system internal to the healthcare staff community offers a precursor to
patient-facing tele-medicine.
• Action 2: Develop diagnostic support applications for primary and community
healthcare workers. Accurate patient diagnostics are critical to ensuring effective
treatment and guiding valid referrals to higher care facilities and specialists. Ineffective
diagnostics at primary and community healthcare facilities can lead to inadequate care
for patients or congestion at higher care facilities. Mobile-delivered diagnostic support
applications can be used to guide decision making among staff who lack adequate
expertise or are out of touch with changing diagnostic approaches. Applications such
as these have been successful in countries including Malawi. For example, the
application called Supporting Life has seen quick adoption and provides community
healthcare workers with decision support for treatment and referral of children aged 2
months to 5 years old.
Centralised management of these applications means they can be updated when
needed to keep abreast of emerging viruses and diseases, changes in diagnostic
approaches, or to reflect changing referral protocols. These applications can be used
offline while the data they create can support oversight and monitoring.
• Action 3: Zero rate high impact, patient-facing mHealth applications. Mobile-
delivered patient support applications are key in supporting individual health
awareness and personal care. In Malawi, at least 13 donor and government funded
mHealth applications are operational, providing Malawians with information and
guidance across a range of areas such as infant health, reproductive health and HIV.
While the actions detailed in the digital core section will scale access to ICT
infrastructure and reduce the costs of data, the costs of using these applications remain
prohibitive for the most vulnerable. Critical mHealth applications should be zero-rated
to overcome this challenge. The DQM should vet zero rating of each application. This
approach can support coordination in the roll-out and design of mHealth initiatives
and provide a means of enforcing standards for integration and data sharing.
Objective 2: Healthcare resource planning and distribution is optimised.
Interoperable systems and digitised record keeping can support a timeous, single-view of the
healthcare sector. These data flows can therefore be used to monitor the available supply of
resources and expertise relative to current and anticipated demand to better support resource
allocation and investment planning. This might relate to staffing, inventory, facility operations

52
or others. Optimal resource utilisation is critical in a resource constrained environment such as
Malawi. While robust foundational digital health infrastructure is in place, there is the
opportunity for its extension and scaling.
● Action 1: Extend the interoperability architecture to include additional systems
and a functional API. Malawi’s National health management information system
(HMIS) is founded on DHIS2. This system is complemented by other digitised services
and infrastructure such as the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) and
a Logistics Management Information System (LMIS). While ongoing system digitisation
will reduce reliance on manually collected and submitted data, interoperability remains
limited and parallel systems are common. Resolving this will be key in creating a single
and unified view of the sector. Malawi’s early stage interoperability framework should
be extended to include two priority sources: the quarterly Integrated Support
Supervisions (ISS) and the Department of HIV and AIDS Management Information
System (DHA-MIS). These and subsequent extensions will be enabled by DoH&P
specified data standards, REST APIs50
, and upskilling technical staff for system
maintenance and development.
● Action 2: Support universal utilisation of shared Electronic Health Records (EHR)
through a health worker tablet program and solar charging at facilities. Malawians
are all issued with a health passport - a paper document carried by Malawians where
facility visits, treatment, morbidities and other health information is stored. While this
system has performed well, it inhibits a centralised view of patient information and
trends, and creates avenues for fraud. EHRs offer a digital means for the safe and robust
storage of patient health information. While e-Mastercards are used in some facilities
to record patient data, this system is offline and only serves to shift the reliance on
paper records in the health centers. A shared EHR system would facilitate access to this
data across facilities and enable centralised analysis and monitoring. Scaling of a
shared EHR system should be complemented by the delivery of tablets required for
their use and the installation of solar power at facilities without access to power. The
shared EHR system should furthermore enable offline capture to cater for connectivity
limitations in remote facilities, however this will require protocols around the frequency
of data upload. This system should rely on the national ID as the individual unique
identifier.
50
REST APIs are widely understood and highly robust application exchange protocols. Their wide usage
means skills needed for their maintenance and upgrade are in ready supply.

53
Digitally Traded Services
Digitally traded services can be leveraged to grow and develop a thriving domestic BPO
market in Malawi with solutions and services that can be exported globally. Worldwide,
the business process outsourcing (BPO) and broader global business services (GBS)51
sector is
providing much-needed continuity of business and critical services for organisations and
consumers. This trend is expected to continue for at least the next 5 years as more brands and
organisations look to drive cost efficiencies, boost service experience, solve localised problems
and mitigate/spread risk by outsourcing, co-sourcing and multi-sourcing key functional areas.
As such, many BPO providers are pivoting to provide digitalised contact centre services or
specialist IT-enabled capabilities within multiple, hybrid physical and virtual working models.
Notably, this has resulted in significant job creation for unemployed youth who service
domestic and global consumers across various key vertical industries. Enabling the growth and
development of a domestic BPO market is, therefore, critical for Malawi to continue to
effectively service the needs, demands and challenges of local businesses and consumers.
Moreover, it enables the country to showcase its capabilities, expertise and talent to digitally-
trade internationally, scale-up job creation, win business and attract more foreign direct
investment (FDI).
Table 9: Malawi’s 2026 Digital Economy objectives for Digitally Traded Services
Potential
Financing
source
Responsible
parties
Timelines
Development a robust
and scalable domestic
BPO market that enables
the country to bridge
into international digitally
traded services
Support the launch of a
suitable BPO trade
association to
professionalise the
industry and stimulate
growth
MAIIC; MoT
MoT; Malawi
Trade and
Investment
Centre
1 year
Conduct a baseline
market quantification
study that will help define
World Bank;
MoT
MoT 1 year
51
Business process outsourcing (BPO) includes call/contact centre and customer experience voice-
based services outsourced to third party operators. Its sister sub-sector is known as business
process/shared services (BPS/SS) which includes the delivery of specialised, non-voice knowledge and
back office processes including finance & accounting (F&A), IT outsourcing (ITO), legal services, learning
services outsourcing (LSO) and human resource outsourcing (HRO). Together, BPO and BPS have
evolved to become known as global business services (GBS).

54
the domestic BPO value
proposition
Enable the growth of the
domestic sector with a 5-
year development
strategy/action plan and
incentives for job
creation and/or tax
breaks
MIICF MoT; OPC 5 years
Facilitate targeted
interventions to boost
local BPO centres of
excellence while
attracting
regional/international
players
Provide targeted growth
support to existing BPO
companies to be used as
case studies to attract
international investment
MoT; MRA
MoT; Incoming
BPO association
3 years
Target regional/African
BPO players to Malawi to
set up and digitally trade
MoT
MoT; Malawi
Trade and
Investment
Centre; Incoming
BPO association
3 years
Mandate government to
become an enabler and
procurer of digitally-
traded services and
products developed in
Malawi
Develop local content
requirements for ICT/ITO
procurement
PPDA, MoI
5 years
Pilot document
digitisation and
automation in MoH with
the goal of a broader
government document
and back office
digitization programme
PPPC; World
Bank
MoH; MoI; MoT
2 years
Malawi’s 2026 Digital Economy target for digitally traded services is doubling ICT service
exports to 4% of total exports while creating 50,000 new jobs in digitally traded services.
In order to achieve this target, an internationally recognised BPO service sector with scaled
international and local players should be developed by focusing on three main objectives:

55
Objective 1: Develop a robust and scalable domestic BPO market that enables
the country to bridge into international digitally traded services. Malawi has a
nascent BPO sector with 5 established BPO operators, an estimated 320 workers servicing the
global business services market and an additional estimated 2,000+ workers servicing the
domestic market. The sector has great potential to provide call/contact centre and digital
channel services for local organisations and consumers. The country’s population of roughly
10.3 million English speakers could be tapped to provide English voice and written services
from centres based in Blantyre and Lilongwe. However, challenges need to be addressed
including the need for well-trained, work-ready staff, effective industry co-ordination, and
demonstrable incentives for growth.
● Action 1: Support the launch of a suitable BPO trade association to
professionalise the industry and stimulate growth. The Ministry of Trade (MoT)
should play the role of BPO industry convenor by coordinating the alignment of both
private and public sector stakeholders. This includes supporting and enabling the
appointment and set-up of the Malawi BPO industry body. This trade association
(consisting of private sector board representatives) should drive the strategic direction
of the BPO sector in Malawi by coordinating outsourced service providers and in-house
operators towards three common goals: 1) industry/business growth and FDI, 2)
skills/talent development and 3) job creation. As such, the industry body would also
ensure that there is an adequate supply of capabilities and expertise in the country to
meet domestic and international demand requirements. This includes the
professionalisation of the industry by recognising and certifying local customer service,
digital and ICT professionals. Moreover, it includes the execution of a skills strategy to
meet the demand for talent and ensure that graduates are adequately prepared and
work-ready to provide both voice and non-voice services. The launch of the industry
body could take the form of a stakeholder workshop to convene and bring together
various public and private stakeholders who appoint a board to run the body with
monthly/yearly subscriptions from private sector stakeholders. The MoT could also
consider providing zero-rated office space for the BPO industry body for a period of
12 months.
● Action 2: Conduct a baseline market quantification study that will help define the
domestic BPO value proposition. The collection of data, its analysis, and its
dissemination are crucial to the development of the BPO sector in Malawi. As such, a
market quantification research study is required to profile, validate and quantify the
BPO sector in Malawi and facilitate the creation of a BPO Investor Handbook and Value
Proposition for the country. The value proposition would confirm the demand side for
digitally traded services domestically (and the potential globally) including investment

56
priorities, service criteria and buyer preferences52
. It would then quantify and highlight
the supply side of available digital and BPO capabilities, facilities, infrastructure and
skills throughout Malawi to global and regional consultants, operators and investors
who decide where to place work. As such, the report, handbook and value proposition
could be utilised, among other things, for inward and outward missions, for marketing
and communications, and to assist in the attraction, facilitation and implementation of
outsourcing (domestic) and offshoring (international) contracts, investment and job
creation in Malawi.
● Action 3: Enable the growth of the domestic sector with a 5-year development
strategy/action plan and incentives for job creation and/or tax breaks. This action
plan would be based on validated findings and data points from the market
quantification report and set a clear path for the growth of Malawi’s domestic BPO
market (and ultimately the broader global business services (GBS) sector). The action
plan would include a set of specific BPO and digital-trade incentives, subsidies and/or
corporate tax rates that foster the growth and development of BPO and in-house
delivery centres and operations based in Malawi. In particular, these incentives could
be linked to specific and tangible outcomes such as meaningful and inclusive job/work
creation and skills development. They would enable Malawi to be more competitive
and make it more cost-effective to deploy delivery centres in the country. Notably,
incentive programmes in established BPO offshore locations such as India, Egypt and
South Africa have been critical to the growth and success of the BPO industries in these
countries.
Objective 2: Facilitate targeted interventions to boost local BPO centres of
excellence while attracting regional/international players. While developing and
further building its domestic BPO market, Malawi can simultaneously promote strategically
located and identified BPO centres and operators as great case studies to regional and
international investors. These BPO centres of excellence would demonstrate to potential
investors the untapped potential that exists in Malawi with the right mix of costs, skills and
infrastructure.
● Action 1: Provide targeted growth support to existing BPO companies to be used
as case studies to attract international investment. The MoT is developing a
national export strategy which may include call/contact centre trade development. This
plan could include market development incentives and initiatives that support existing
BPO service providers in Malawi such as Tiderise and KempCall. Additionally, it could
52
Buyers would include large companies, consultants, BPO operators or government organisations in
key global source markets such as Australia, Europe, the UK and the US, as well as in regional source
markets within other African countries.

57
include marketing and case study promotion of banks and telecom operators that have
established in-house call/contact-centre and shared services operations that service
other markets and countries from Malawi. These case studies could be prepared by
globally recognised BPO analysts and industry influencers/thought leaders.
● Action 2: Target regional/African and international BPO players to Malawi to set
up and digitally trade. There are already large regional BPO organisations such as
iSON BPO (with 120 employees), Tech Mahindra and Techno Brain that are providing
business process services from/in Malawi. iSON BPO in particular provides inbound
customer service, helpdesk, outbound sales, back office, social media care and data
cleaning services from its centre in Lilongwe. These organisations could also be used
as best practice case studies to attract other regional and international players to
Malawi to set-up operations in the country and provide digitally-traded services. A
target list of potential regional/African and international players should be created with
a step-by-step action plan to attract and land these companies. This would include
targeted, one-to-one investment promotions, inward/outward missions and marketing
and communications.
Objective 3: Mandate government to become an enabler and procurer of
digitally-traded products and services developed in Malawi. The Government of
Malawi could boost growth in digitally traded services by mandating key ministries and
departments to digitise, outsource or co-source certain back office functions and processes.
In addition, certain policies could be implemented that require firms to use domestically
created digital content or domestically supplied IT outsourcing services.
● Action 1: Develop local content requirements for ICT/ITO procurement. Driving
indigenous innovation in the Malawi digital economy can be augmented with
incentives and policies for firms to purchase digital content and IT outsourcing (ITO)
services from Malawian service providers. In this regard, Malawian citizens, or Malawian
firms that form associations with foreign firms in any ICT/ITO bidding processes, would
be eligible to be granted a margin of preference if they meet certain procurement
criteria. In addition, performance incentives could be provided for local procurement
of ITO and digital services by government agencies and departments.
● Action 2: Pilot document digitisation and automation in MoH with the goal of a
broader government document and back office digitization programme. The
Malawi Public Private Partnership Commission (PPPC) is currently exploring the
implementation of a government digitisation programme which includes support for
start-ups and entrepreneurs. A pilot programme for document digitisation could be
facilitated by hiring graduates to assist in the digitisation of government records for
the Ministry of Health & Population. By digitally transforming back office and paper-
based government processes and functions, Malawi can augment and further enable

58
the BPO sector and digitally-traded services while providing much-needed youth
employment and small business development as well as other downstream
opportunities.

Appendix
The strategy was devised based on the following framework which identified the objectives, status quo, blockages, actions, timeline, financing
and costing for all the items within the strategy. The timelines were structured along a horizon of one year in the short term, three years in the
medium term and five years in the long term.
Note: Financing sources are proposed and not determined.
Key:
ST – 1 year
MT – 3 years
LT – 5 years
The following contains estimated costs of implementation and operation of the strategy’s actions.

2
Digital Core: Network Access
Target Increasing internet usage to 80% of the population and broadband coverage to 95% of the population by 2026
Objective Status Quo Blockages Actions Timeline Financing Costing (in USD)
USD 2.10 per GB
of prepaid mobile
data
USD 4.76 per GB of
prepaid mobile data
• High data landing costs
and inflated domestic
fiber pricing
• Market
overcapitalisation
relative to demand
• High tax burden of
network operation and
service
Establish an SPV to build a fiber backbone
from Nacala to Lilongwe. Transfer
domestic ESCOM fiber to this SPV and
contract its maintenance to ESCOM53
MT
ESCOM, MITA, Private
Sector, ISPs
4,000,000.00
Mandate infrastructure sharing of ICT
providers
ST
ICT service providers,
MACRA
150,000.00
Optimise the allocation of spectrum ST MACRA, MNOs 150,000.00
Phase-out MACRA’s 3.5% tax on ICT
provider turnover54 ST MACRA, ISPs 125,000.00
Enforce a 30-month graduated price path
through MACRA to achieve USD 2.10 per
LT MACRA 150,000.00
53
This costing assumes that Malawi’s public sector invests 25% of the total costs for the fiber backbone from Nacala to Lilongwe. The sale of ESCOM fiber to
the SPV will require a due diligence and transaction support.
54
The costs associated with the action relate to the hire of expertise to support budgetary monitoring and oversight. The sum value of the 3.5% turnover tax
from 2021 to 2026 is USD 7,500,000.00 based on the 2017/18 MACRA annual report.

3
GB by 2026
Usage taxes and levies at
~26% of data purchase
Phase-out the 10% excise on data and
text package purchases55
ST MACRA; MRA 20,000,000.00
95% of the
population have
broadband
coverage
88% of the
population have
broadband
coverage
Underserved communities
are not commercially
attractive for network
operators
Subsidise OPEX and CAPEX of targeted
infrastructure extensions through the
Universal Service Fund (USF)
LT MITA, MACRA, MNOs 5,000,000.00
Stimulate demand with data vouchers for
end-users in newly covered areas through
the USF56
LT
Consumers, MACRA,
MITA
228,000.00
55
This costing estimates total foregone revenue from text and data sales per year if the tax were to be 0%. Alternative sources of revenue from VAT and
heightened economic activity will supplement this figure.
56
Vouchers will give newly covered users 1GB of data per month for 2 months.

4
Digital Core: Device Access
Target Increasing device ownership from 51% to 80% of the population and energy access to 20% of the population by 2026
Objective Status Quo Blockages Actions Timeline Financing
Costing (in
USD)
Lowering device
costs by 22.5% in
2021 and 15% after
2021
Feature phone costs
of USD 8 and 4G
enabled device costs
of USD 25
Devices taxes and
tariffs at ~23% of
device purchase
Zero-rate device taxes from 2021 to 202257
MT MRA 500,000.00
Lower VAT on devices to 10% (from 2022 until 90%
ownership achieved)
LT MRA 150,000.00
Eliminate Private Copy Levy (5%) ST MRA 110,000.00
Cost effective device
packages lead to the
purchase of 3 million
additional devices by
Malawians
The majority of
Malawians are unable
to afford the upfront
costs of device
purchases
Low purchasing
power of
consumers
Subsidise 50% (USD 80) of the costs of 15,000 entry-
level device package purchases through the USF
each year58
MT USF 1,200,000.00
Subsidise 15% (USD 1.2) of the costs of 400,000
entry-level device purchases through the USF each
year59
MT USF 480,000.00
57
The costing estimates foregone revenue from sales
58
The estimates reflect costs per year paid by the USF
59
The estimates reflect costs per year paid by the USF

5
Pilot a procurement programme for tablets for 10%
of total teachers
MR
National Budget;
USF
1,877,700
20% population have
access to electricity
of which 5% is
derived from home
solar PV
11% of the
population have
access to electricity
Costly and slow
national grid
extensions exclude
non-urban
populations
Subsidise the sale of household solar PV systems
through pooled development partner financing60
MT
Ministry of Natural
Resources, Energy
and Mining, OPIC,
USAID, Nordic
Development Fund
5,250,000.00
Deploy solar powered public charging stations in off-
grid communities61
ST
Ministry of Natural
Resources, Energy
and Mining, OPIC,
USAID, Nordic
Development Fund
2,000,000.00
Revise import standards for solar PV to ensure
acceptable longevity
ST
Ministry of Natural
Resources, Energy
and Mining
50,000.00
60
The costing reflects 50% of CAPEX for electrifying 50,000 households.
61
The costing reflects 100% of CAPEX for 2,000 charging stations to serve all 193 constituencies.

6
Digital Core: Skills
Target Raising the pass rate of secondary school examinations from 50% to 80% and increasing the availability of digitally relevant skills for all Malawians
Costing (in
USD)
Students
obtain high
quality skills
with an 80%
pass rate in
secondary
school exams
A 50% pass rate
in secondary
school exams
reflects poor
schooling
outcomes
• High student to teacher
ratios and limited capacity of
teachers to support learners
• Lack of availability of
content and access to
opportunities for up skilling.
Provide open access to digital content and
support for teachers and students in all of
Malawi’s schools (solar powered, offline Wi-
Fi)62
LT
Department of
Education, Science and
Technology, FCDO, GIZ
5,700,000.00
Revise teacher training curriculum to include
blended learning, device usage for education
and LMS
MT
Department of
200,000.00
Malawian’s
have the
practical skills
The skills
required for
participating in
• Low levels of digital literacy
• Educational courses in
digital skills are under-
Develop a community digital champion
programme to deepen digital literacy and
MT
Department of
Technology, FCDO
500,000.00
62
There are an estimated 4,6 million students enrolled in schools in Malawi. Based on % of population with access to the internet this suggests that as few as
644 000 children have internet access. Based on these statistics, it is possible that there are roughly 5000 schools across the country who may require internet
access, suggesting a total cost of $5 000 000 to cater for a solar panel device to every school. The nutshell may cost an additional $140. Additionally, another
$100 per annum per school may be required, totalling $500 000. Thus, per annum per school $1240 will be required. Totalling an upfront expenditure of $5 700
000 and an operating expenditure of $500 000 in the first year.

7
needed to
produce and
consume
digital
products and
services
the digital
economy are in
short supply
resourced
• Technical curricula do not
adequately prepare students
for employment
skills across Malawi63
Introduce mandatory learnerships and
project-based testing in technical curricula in
post-school
ST
Department of
Technology, FCDO
303,000.00
Develop open ODL certificates targeting in
areas of scarce technical skills
MT
Department of
203,000.00
Malawians
have wider
access to
higher
education
Limited access
to higher
education and
employment
following
graduation
Limited space in tertiary
institutions and high costs of
studying away from home
Pilot community computer labs that support
online distance learning (ODL) to university
graduates64
ST Education, Science and
Technology, PPPC,
MACRA, World Bank
965,000.00
63
Similarly to the 5000 digital champions that are deployed in Rwanda, there should be an aim to deploy 2000 digital champions in Malawi. These champions
will be trained (free of charge) and will then be able to disseminate and promote their knowledge in their communities. This works out to about 10 digital
champions per constituency, total: 193. Training cost will be $100 per head.
64
MACRA is spending MK 680,778,000 ($883,150) on telecentre projects at 49% of their total project budget, in order to construct telecentres in all 193
constituencies in Malawi at around $4,575 per centre. These telecentres can be leveraged to support ODL programmes for university graduates, particularly
during Covid-19.
While telecentres already have several computers, 10 additional refurbished computers per centre to accommodate graduates may affordably cost and add
additional capacity: $500. In total, this could cost: $5,000 per telecentre.

8
Digital Services: e-Trade
Target Reducing trade compliance costs by 37% and time by 31% to increase competitiveness and e-commerce adoption
Compliance costs of
USD 312 for export
and USD 250 for
import
Compliance costs of
USD 585 for export and
USD 305 for import
Reliance on
manual processes
for trade
facilitation
Expedite deployment of the Electronic Single
Window (ESW) with a focus on process
automation and border agency integration
ST UNCTAD 100,000.00
Compliance time of
100 hours for export
and 80 hours for
import
Compliance time of 153
hours for export and 110
hours for import
Introduce an import duty and tax exemption
for low value goods imports
ST
UNCTAD, World
Bank
150,000.00
Pilot a cargo monitoring program for pre-
emptive processing
LT
Ministry of
Trade and
Industry,
UNCTAD
1,400,000.00
590,000 Malawians use
the internet to buy
goods online
~190,000 Malawians use
the internet to buy
goods online
Nascent logistics
and postal system
Expedite implementation of the national
addressing system
LT UNCTAD 5,000,000.00
Pilot a parcel locker service to support last mile
delivery
MT GIZ 400,000.00

9
Forthcoming
regulation that
facilitates e-commerce
and the digital
economy is
contextually relevant
An uncertain regulatory
regime may impede e-
commerce development
Lack of adaptation
of regulation to
digital economy
requirements
Develop agile approaches to regulation that
can help to quickly close identified regulatory
gaps
MT GIZ 75,000.00
Develop a data protection act with small
business exemptions
MT GIZ 100,000.00

10
Digital Services: Digital Financial Services
Target A 30% increase (2.1 million) in the number of mobile money accounts and a financial market development index score of at least 5 out of 7
Costing (in
USD)
Affordable access
to a diverse range
of financial services
and products
Limited access
to financing for
businesses and
individuals
• Uncertain identity
verification charges
(National ID)
• Underdeveloped credit
infrastructure
• Lack of visibility of
product profile
guidelines and testing
opportunities
Ensure transparency and timeous
revision to pricing for use of the
National ID for identity verification
MT UNCTAD 150,000.00
Support standardisation of KYC
requirements of low-risk banking
clients.
MT
FinMark Trust, UNDP, Reserve
Bank of Malawi, Banks, Financial
Service Providers,
50,000.00
Publicise all activities in the
regulatory sandbox and develop
formal participation requirements
and benefits
ST
FinMark Trust, UNDP, GIZ, Reserve
Service Providers,
100,000.00
50% of the
population made or
received a digital
payment in the past
year
28% of the
population
made or
received a digital
payment in the
past year
Low levels of trust in
financial services
Develop needs-based financial
literacy programmes that drive
positive behaviour and trust
MT
FCDO, Reserve Bank of Malawi,
Banks, Financial Service Providers,
250,000.00
• USSD services often not
zero-rated which
Mandate the zero-rating of USSD-
delivered financial services
ST FinMark Trust, UNDP, Reserve
120,000.00

11
increases costs for
consumers
• Variable POS fees can
reach 3%
Service Providers,
Leverage existing and pilot new
digital infrastructure to digitise
government and cash grant
payments
MT
Service Providers,
330,000.00
Cap variable point of sale (POS) fees
at 0.5% of value
ST
Service Providers,
50,000.00

12
Digital Services: Digital Government
Target The National ID is universally used for identity verification and supports government service delivery and digitization objectives
Costing (in
USD)
Malawi’s National
ID is universally
used for identity
verification and
service innovation
Malawi’s National
ID is often used for
identity verification
Established systems have
independent person
identifiers
Improve the performance of the Affordable Input
Programme (AIP) and social grant system through
integration with the Unified Beneficiary Registry (UBR)
and adoption of the National ID
MT World Bank 30,000.00
Improve health service delivery by harmonising health
system individual identifiers with the National ID
MT
UNDP; FCDO,
GIZ
500,000.00
Support the emergence of innovative services built
using the National ID by widening access to the National
ID API and implementing a PKI
ST World Bank 5,200,000.00
Widen usage of the National ID in the design and
delivery of government services by establishing an
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) and regulating its use
MT PPPC, NRB 3,000,000.00
The digitisation of
procurement and
three additional
Government
services are
primarily delivered
Fragmented and nascent
digital government service
delivery
Develop an open eProcurement and unified eService
platform with MPC as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for government
services
MT
GIZ, World Bank,
JICA
515,000.00

13
services improves
service delivery and
transparency
through physical
channels
Scope manual G2C services in and prioritise digitisation
of three critical service
ST GIZ, PPPC 3,250,000.00
Impactful
digitisation
interventions are
effectively
maintained and
upgraded
Suboptimal
targeting and
sustainability in
government
digitisation
interventions
• Government
digitisation occurs in
silos
• Lack of coordination
between development
partners and
government with
limited skills transfer
Improve government efficiency and the digitisation of
back-office processes through the roll-out of an
electronic document and records management system
(EDRMS) in the national archives.
MT GIZ, PPPC 3,500,000.00
Establish MITA as a centralised coordinating mechanism
and elevate the ICT Steering Committee to a high-level
forum on ICT and the Digital Economy under the VPO
ST
Department of
e-Government
600,000.00

14
Digital Solutions: Agriculture
Target Increasing average farm family earnings from USD 1,800 to USD 2,250 by increasing the adoption of agricultural services and access to agricultural technology
Costing (in
USD)
Farmers access high
quality inputs and
plug into a rich
end-user market
supported by a
variety of platforms
Farmers struggle
to access critical
agricultural inputs
and access large
sources of
demand
• Limited control
and monitoring
have led to
presence of
fake/low quality
inputs
• Post-harvest
storage losses due
to inadequate
storage facilities
Develop e-verification to ensure quality of
inputs distributed through the Affordable
Inputs Programme (AIP)
MT MoAWID; MAIIC 68,000.00
Digitise food safety certification processes to
improve access to export markets
MT MoAIWD; MAIIC; PPPC 50,000.00
Pilot IoT-enabled storage monitoring of
national storage facilities
MT MoAIWD; MAIIC; PPPC 145,500.00
Digitally delivered
services support
modern farming
practices to
increase
productivity
Manual and
outdated farming
practices by
smallholder
farmers impede
productivity
• Low agricultural
expertise in
smallholder
farmers
• Shortages of
extension service
workers and weak
implementation of
initiatives
Provide government extension workers with
tablets to use and promote adoption of digital
support applications
ST
MoAIWD; Development
Partners
400,000.00
Develop an open repository of common
extension content and farmer feedback to
support demand driven innovation
MT Government of Flanders 225,000.00
Develop public sector delivered mobile
ST
MoAIWD; PPPC; Agriculture
400,000.00

15
applications for digital extension services that
support USSD and voice functionality for
increased uptake by farmers
Sector Wide Approach
Support Project
(development partner trust
fund managed by World
Bank)
Subsidise the costs of asset sharing services
when delivered to farming co-operatives and
associations
MT MAIIC; Development Partners 2,400,000.00
Rich and timeous
data supports
innovation and
investment
Fragmented
agricultural
information
management
systems
• Lack of a central
M&E database
• Manual and
infrequent data
collection has
resulted in poor
quality and/or
incomplete data
Target additional funding to expedite the
implementation of the National Agriculture
Management Information System (NAMIS)
and prioritise integration with Esoko for
pricing information
MT
Agriculture Sector Wide
Approach Support Project
8,000,000.00
Develop an open-GIS data repository under
National Statistical Office (NSO)
LT NSO 20,000.00

16
Digital Solutions: Health
Target Increasing life expectancy by an additional two years and supporting efficient resource allocation
Patients are correctly
diagnosed and treated
Limited access and low
quality of primary
healthcare
• Rural community
distance from
healthcare
• Limited skills and
numerous unfilled
posts in primary
and community
healthcare facilities
Pilot a mobile-delivered mentorship and
training interface for medical
practitioners65
MT
B&M Gates
Foundation; MoH
625,000.00 per
year
Develop diagnostic support applications
for primary and community healthcare
workers66
MT
B&M Gates
Foundation; MoH
5,000,000.00
Zero-rate high impact patient-facing
mHealth applications
ST
B&M Gates
Foundation; MoH
120,000.00
Health-care resource
planning and
distribution is based
Health-care
information is
fragmented and dated
• Fragmentation of
HIMS
• Paper based
Extend the interoperability architecture to
include additional systems (priority of ISS,
DHAMIS) and a functional API
MT
B&M Gates
Foundation; MoH
1,875,000.00
65
The pilot targets 1,500 staff in the health sector
66
Three applications would require ~3 million USD for implementation with the remaining 2 million in operating costs. Approximately 75% of the implementation
costs are associated with training of 10,000 health workers incurring a cost of USD 300 each

17
on need records prevent
patient tracking
through time and
between
institutions
Support universal utilisation of Shared
Electronic Health Records through a
health worker tablet program and solar
charging at facilities67
MT
B&M Gates
Foundation; MoH
3,450,000.00
67
Costing reflects roll-out across ~750 sites and includes electrification, devices and their replacement, training, connectivity and support.

18
Digital Solutions: Digitally Traded Services
Target Doubling ICT service exports to 4% of total exports while creating 50,000 new jobs in digitally traded services
Objective Status Quo Blockages Actions Timeline Financing Costing
A robust and scalable
domestic BPO market
that enables the
country to bridge into
international digitally
traded services A nascent BPO sector
with limited
international clients
and representation
• Absence of
support for local
BPO service
providers
• Low levels of
visibility of
Malawian BPO
services and skills
Support the launch of a suitable BPO trade
association to professionalise the industry and
stimulate growth
ST MoT 25,000.00
Conduct a baseline market quantification study
that will help define the domestic BPO value
proposition
MT World Bank 35,000.00
Enable the growth of the domestic sector with a
5-year development strategy/action plan and
incentives for job creation and/or tax breaks
ST MIICF; MoT 10,000.00
Facilitate targeted
interventions to boost
local BPO centres of
excellence while
attracting
regional/international
Provide targeted growth support to existing BPO
companies to be used as case studies to attract
international investment68
MT MoT, MRA 350,000.00
Target regional/African BPO players to Malawi to
set up and digitally trade
MT MoT 10,000.00
68
The costs relate to job creation incentives that should be provided for each offshore job created per annum.

19
players
Mandate government
to become an enabler
and procurer of
digitally-traded
services and products
developed in Malawi
Develop local content requirements for ICT/ITO
procurement
LT MoI; PPPC 123,500.00
Pilot document digitisation and automation in
MoH with the goal of a broader government
document and back office digitization
programme
MT
PPPC, World
Bank
250,000.00

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