Dausi hints on Data Protection Act as Malawi moving towards digital economy

Malawi has created conditions necessary to facilitate its entry into the digital economy, Minister of Information and Communications Technology Nicholas Dausi has told an international forum.

Making a presentation on Tuesday during the Innovation Africa Digital Summit 2018 taking place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the minister told the audience of information and communication technology (ICT) captains from around the world that Malawi already has in place the right policies, laws, regulations and infrastructure to spearhead ICT development and usage

“We are steadily heading towards the doorsteps of the digital economy. Everyday, new reforms are taking place in this sector,” said Dausi, citing a decision by government to place ICT among the priorities for focus and attention.

Now in its sixth year, the summit aims to promote digital connectivity across all spectrums to the benefit of Africa as a whole.

Running through the progress that has been made, Dausi said Malawi is reviewing the National ICT Policy of 2013, a new Communications Act is in place and the Electronic Transactions and Cyber Security Act got enacted in response to the advancements that have taken place in the ICT sector.

Three weeks ago, Dausi said the country validated the National Cyber Security strategy and the Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert), to deal with cyber security threats, is being set up under the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra).

“To complement these developments, we have also started working on coming up with the Data Protection Act. Soon a Bill will be introduced in Parliament,” he said.

Dausi also told the meeting that a number of regulations have been put in place to assist in promoting the sector, among them, to do with interconnection, quality of service, numbering, licensing, broadcasting/content, tariffs and consumer protection.

He said the entry into the telecommunications subsector has been eased with the introduction of a converged licensing framework by Macra to provide for a technological service neutral regime where operators have a four-tier licensing framework to operate under

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