By Brenda Kayo;
The National Registration Bureau (NRB) has asked Malawians to embrace digital technology for socio-economic transformation.
Principal Secretary for NRB Mphatso Sambo made the call in Lilongwe yesterday at a Project Validation Workshop on Inclusive Digital Transformation.
“NRB is, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), working on designing a project on Inclusive Digital Public Infrastructure, which will help in stimulating economic activities in the digital era and bring about transformative changes, thereby fostering inclusive growth.
“By utilising digital public infrastructure, NRB will be providing universal legal identity to all Malawian citizens, who will be identified in every transaction they need to make, whether in Malawi or outside Malawi. In fact, digitalisation is one of the enablers of the economic development of this country,” he said.
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UNDP Deputy Representative Challa Getachew said, as the world is going digital, Malawi should not be left behind.
He said inclusive digital transformation leverages digital technologies and initiatives in a manner that ensures equal access, benefits and opportunities for all individuals and communities regardless of their socio-economic status and geographical location.
“Most of the payments, most of the transactions, are going online and the world is going to go digital as we proceed in the coming years. Malawi cannot be left behind and Malawi’s rural population, which is at 85 percent of the whole population, needs to get access to technology,” he said.
Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority Director General Daud Suleman commended the move which, he said, would help Malawi become an inclusive community and make a digital future possible.
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“It is important that all players that are involved— from an identity perceptive, an infrastructure perceptive and from government perceptive— must align so that this digital transformation which we are seeking is on board and every one should see this future,” he said.
NRB is testing the prototype of digital identification and plans to launch it in 2024 with technical support from UNDP.
