Malawi ranks top of 10 African countries with cheapest data prices between June-September, 2023
A report filed by Adekunle Agbetiloye — a business reporter by africa.businessinsider.com
Globally, the report says Malawi ranks 29th globally with its data price for 1GB at US$0.38, followed by Nigeria on second place (31st globally) at US$0.39 and Ghana on third (33rd) at US$0.40.
Agbetiloye indicates that the list is courtesy of cable.co.uk, a leading broadband, TV & phone comparison platform.
He writes: “While high data costs have long been a barrier to internet access in many parts of the globe including Africa, it is lovely to see that some African countries are leading the way in providing affordable data prices, making the digital world more accessible to their citizens.
“These countries are making data cheap thanks to factors like fierce competition in their telecommunications industry and some solid infrastructure investments.
“Having cheaper data is not only about lower internet bills but also about enhancing the people’s overall quality of life. Cheaper data means more people can hop on the internet train and as the number of internet users grows, the better shot the ICT sector has at boosting the country’s economy.”
Agbetiloye further reported that cable.co.uk recently released a report for the average price of one gigabyte (1GB) derived from an extensive analysis of over 5,600 mobile data packages offered across the globe — which revealed that all countries in this region are cheaper than the global average of US$2.59.
Last month, when Malawi and Zambia signed a Diplomatic Data Corridor Agreement and a government-to-government memorandum of understanding (MoU), Zambia Minister of Technology & Science, Felix Mutati passionately applauded Malawi for its fight to make sure data prices was affordable.
The campaign, which Malawians dubbed Data Must Fall saw the mobile phone and internet providers being reined in and made some adjustments.
Mutati thus appealed to African countries to embrace Malawi’s ‘Data Must Fall’ mantra for smooth data flow that would transform lives of people across the continent.
The Diplomatic Data Corridor collaboration in telecommunications and ICT is between the two nations — Malawi and Zambia on one hand — and the commercial agreement between Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) and FibreCom on the other.
Mutati said at the MoU signing ceremony in Lilongwe that one of the barriers to development journey of African countries is the cost of internet, which is drawing the countries back, saying: “Africa must together say data prices must fall; thanks to the wisdom of Malawi.
“I will be pressing Zambia that from now on, the cost of data must fall. Malawi has given Africa the mantra so let us adopt it.”
Campaigners in Malawi embarked on the Data Must Fall campaign in 2020 in order to make internet cost affordable and accessible to the majority of Malawians by generating a policy that would safeguard affordable data bundles.
Malawians have been protesting against service providers for overpricing their data bundles and according to Mutati, reducing data costs will enable the continent to trigger opportunities and possibilities, particularly amongst the youth who are eager to access the internet for enterprise and connectivity but high cost of data is stopping them.
“Let us make money, not around the cost of data but around the transactions that are enabled by data; that is where the money is, not in the cost of transportation.
“The money is at the end when the goods are delivered. That is where we must make money,” he had said, adding that in Africa, the high cost of data is attributed to factors such as unavailability of infrastructure and high taxation.
The interconnection project was also extended with Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited through the same ESCOM, which will enable Malawi access high-speed optical fibre-based network, thereby ensuring internet that is affordable, available, fast and reliable across the country.
ESCOM has rolled out Fibre-to-the-Home technology into residential and business areas which covers all key central business areas in major towns and cities — with over 22,000 homes and 3,000 business premises in the country already fibre-ready.
ESCOM Chief Executive Officer, Kamkwamba Kumwenda unveiled at both MoU signing events that they took such a “bold step to reduce the cost of data and in addition to creating jobs for skilled Malawians”.
He also announced that the National Data Centre is fully operational, which is a Tier-3 Data Centre offering Cloud services and is set to propel development of SMEs — and any other business owners who cannot afford physical servers — “who can now have the state-of-the-art virtual servers at their disposal”.
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