MACRA, CAMA ASKS Consumers To Demand Rights

Malawians have been urged to demand their consumer rights and protest against any market abuses and social injustices.

Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) Director General Andrew Kumbatira made the call in Lilongwe Tuesday morning during the Media and Civil Society Organization Workshop on consumer protection. The call has also been echoed by consumer Association of Malawi (CAMA).

Andrew Kumbatira 

Kumbatira observed that it is disheartening that in the face of abuses at the hands of various operators in Malawi's growing communication sector, consumers remain unacceptably quite.

He said only few individual rights campaigners including Consumer Association of Malawi (CAMA) and few CSOs have been vocal in demanding consumer rights.

"Let me remind each one of you to be assertive. Some of the operators in our communications sector get away with market abuses as a result of our silence. If we collectively speak up we are going to force them to take a notice of the myriad challenges that we are experiencing" Kumbatira urged while emphasise full utilisation of all available channels that MACRA opened up across the country.

He said MACRA is serious in consumer protection issues as now it has among others embark on various initiatives to protect the consumer including the setting up a dedicated Consumer Unit, revising laws to incorporate consumer protection and enhancing monitoring of quality service.

He even assured the communications (ICT) consumer (one using telecommunication services offered by service providers licensed by MACRA for personal use like Access, Airtel, MTL and TNM) that dropping calls and network congestion will be a thing of the past since, MACRA was cleared by the Supreme Court last year to start implementing the Consolidated ICT Regulatory Management System (CIRMS) which among others can monitor quality of service in the sector including assessing the levels of network congestion and dropped calls.

Adding to Kumbatira's call, MACRA Deputy Director of Consumer Affairs, Miss Thokozani Chimbe said everyone has a role to play on demanding consumer rights.

Miss Chimbe said collective voice from consumer themselves demanding their rights from service providers carries more weight than leaving the task to few individuals and CSOs.

The workshop in Lilongwe seeks to build partnership of CSOs, Media and Macra on promoting basic rights of all consumers to demand those rights are respected and protected and to protest against any market abuses and social injustices which undermine those rights. And it is part of MACRAs consumer awareness campaign which was launched in March this year.

These calls comes amid observation that a lot of Malawians do not demand or protest for their rights and in most cases, they leave it in hands of few individuals and civil society to speak on their behalf.

But in reaction to consumer silence in the country, the Consumers Association of Malawi (CAMA) says time has come for Malawians to wake up and begin to demand for their rights whenever they feel that service providers have infringed their rights.

John Kapito

John Kapito CAMA Executive Director says consumer’s needs to utilize all available channels to complain on any infringements of rights.

He also encouraged CSO’s Media and everyone to raise awareness and education of the consumer rights saying this will enable service providers to enhance their service provision.

“I think the issue about demanding the rights is another process that requires a lot of awareness and education and we need to make sure that we are moving with the people in trying to do so. People find demanding rights as something that is useless or is a waste of time. But I think let us inculcate that spirit in people to make sure that when they go out there and their rights have been abused they must continuously demand for them. And once you begin demanding for these rights you find that service provision becomes very good as well.” said Kapito

He hoped that with consistence of messaging at different levels people will begin demanding their rights as consumers.

“Malawians have been on receiving end, but we are saying that can we please stop being on the receiving end, go out there and demand. Challenge the service providers, once you have done that you will find that services that we are talking now to be poor will be better and there will be some change on the market.”

Read consumer rights here Read or Download

Malawi Prepares ICT Experts in Cyber Security Threats

George Mkondiwa: Government
 is trying to fight cyber crimes 

Cyber Security issues have not spared Malawi, with the boom in mobile and computer use some Malawians have experienced hacking, online data theft and proliferation of destructive malware, these events and future serious cyber threats have forced Malawi Government to embark on training aimed at raising awareness among ICT Executives and Policy Makers on cyber security so that they know the need for urgency in making policies relating to cyber crime.

The workshop has began on Tuesday in the Capital Lilongwe following a study by Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) that established that member states, including Malawi, were lagging behind in the formulation of policies and legislation that deals with cyber crime as well as lack of awareness among government policy makers and top executives on the need to urgently formulate and pass laws relating to cyber crime.

Chief Secretary to the Government Mr. George Mkondiwa when opening the training said, Malawi is trying to ready itself from future possible cyber attacks following the emerging computers and cellphones in the country and that the workshop marks the beginning to talk and make Malawians aware of threats brought by ICT and know how to prevent them.

He said Malawi government recognise the role the ICT-revolution plays to national development and is harnessing the  ICT through putting in place regulatory and legislative frameworks intended to ensure that Malawi makes the most of this revolution in its efforts to transform the country from poverty to prosperity.

"However, the Malawi Government is aware that the emergence of the ICTs has brought along with it the concern of cyber threats." Says Mkondiwa, 

"As highlighted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and even if at a  relatively lower scale compared to what is happening in the developed world, Malawi is also today facing the same problems of identity and data theft, proliferation of destructive malware and denial-of service attacks which the ICT sector world over is facing. Needless to say, that these threats are a virus that can undermine the role of ICTs as a tool critical to national development and, at the same time, inhibit the growth of the ICT sector itself." 

But he said Malawi is commited to spare no effort in tackling these crimes, especially so because "ICTs are the superhighway toward transformation of education, commerce and and other sectors" among others.

"This is why the Malawi government, like a good general at the battle front,

has taken the leading role in enhancing cyber security in the country through drafting the Electronic Transaction Bill.

Among many other things, the bill provides for investment in Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), that will ensure secure exchange of data between and

among computer users. The Electronic Transaction Bill also proposes the formation of Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) in Malawi which will be handling internet security issues. The government believes that once passed into law, and working in harmony with several other ICT- related legislation already in place, this bill will address issues related to cyber threats, thereby enabling the country to maximise the usage of ICTs."

The Malawi Government Chief Secretary then assured the meeting that the administration of Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika, will do all it can to create an environment that "provides a powerful arsenal to this war." 

"The government will continue to provide direction, undertake reforms and make necessary investments in requisite skills and infrastructure for the consolidation and further development of the ICT sector in the country."

Andrew Kumbatira 

Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) has partners with COMESA in training the officers.

MACRA's Director General Mr. Andrew Kumbatira said Cyber security is an area that has not been explored extensively in Malawi and there is need for awareness as the nation is experiencing increasing electronic transactions, which in turn will enhance economic activity of the country.

He said though Malawi has not yet experienced a very serious cyber threats, but with emerging cellphones and computers it is apparent that the country will in two year period experience the worst if ICT experts are not trained in how to secure Malawi cyber space.

The three day training has drawn High Level Executives and Policy Makers including Government officials responsible for ICTs, Legal Experts and the ICT/IT and Telecommunications Experts.