The Government of Malawi today officially announced of its intentions to seek a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement towards the provision of quality and affordable international broadband connectivity to the country.
The government, through its arm the Privatization Commission (PC), said the successful partner would be expected to provide the broadband connectivity to the entire country through the installation and operation of a fibre optic cable from Lilongwe to Dar es Salaam, and onward transit over submarine fibre optic cable.
“The designated route for the services is from Lilongwe to the Tanzania border in Karonga, a distance of about 670 km,” the Privatization Commission said.
The government stated the invitation for bids would be made in August this year.
The winning bidder would be required to offer specified menu of international telecommunication services at the virtual landing point set to be established in Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital.
The winning bidder would also be expected supply services to the Government and the entire requesting telecommunication operators, as well as commercial subscribers in Malawi on a non-discriminatory basis.
The Commission added that the winning bidder would also be responsible for laying the optic cable telecommunication system between the Virtual Landing Point (VLP) in Lilongwe, Malawi and interconnection point at the Malawi-Tanzania border with corresponding fibre optic telecommunication facilities in Tanzania.
The project, part of Regional Communication Infrastructure Program – Malawi Project (RCIPMW) that was approved back in June 2009, is funded by the World Bank to a tune of US$20 million (MK3 billion) credit.
Malawi’s ICT sector is excited about the project, considering the country is among the African nations with underdeveloped communications infrastructure.
Current statistics by Internetworldstats.com, a leading Web analytics website, indicate Malawi’s Internet penetration at only 4.5 percent of its 15.8 million people.
The Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) places development in the ICT sector among the key priority areas of concentration.
