Grace Ashiru
Malawi has announced its plans to initiate a Smart Village Initiative in collaboration with Huawei, a leading global telecom services provider, aimed at enhancing Internet access in rural and remote communities.
The initiative includes the establishment of technical training centers in these areas to equip youth with vital digital skills, such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and smart agriculture solutions.
President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera shared this information during the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit in Beijing, China. The initiative aims to foster digital transformation across rural areas nationwide, improving connectivity and access to digital services.
With a population exceeding 20 million, Malawi had 5.86 million Internet users at the beginning of 2024, indicating an Internet penetration rate of 27.7%. According to Statista, the number of households with Internet access in the country is projected to reach 640,000 in 2024, highlighting the necessity for initiatives like the Smart Village Initiative to address the digital divide in rural regions.
This development follows Huawei’s announcement in July 2024 to create a smart village in Uganda, which will feature a network tower station, a solar power station utilizing its digital power microgrid solution, and a range of smart classroom equipment.
In September 2023, Malawi unveiled plans to implement the Digital Malawi Program in collaboration with the World Bank to expedite digital transformation, encouraging economic growth, innovation, job creation, and improved access to services and markets through ICTs.
Additionally, in the same year, Huawei declared its intention to invest $430 million over four years across 28 African countries, allocating $200 million for cloud development, $200 million to strengthen local partnerships, and $30 million to train future digital professionals. The company also entered into a MoU with Kenya to promote digital transformation.
Emphasizing the continued interest of Chinese firms in African digital development, the government of Sierra Leone has signed a $50 million agreement with the Chinese state-owned global trading company and engineering firm China National Technical Import & Export Corporation to establish the SMART Sierra Leone Project.
This project aims to extend Internet connectivity to over 400,000 previously unconnected citizens, establish national data centers to manage and protect sovereign data, and enhance security measures for critical state infrastructure in the capital city, Freetown.
