By Michael Malakata , IDG News Service , 06/06/2008
The Zambian government has invited the private sector, including ISPs (Internet service providers), civil societies and mobile telecommunication companies, to help the government provide ICT services in rural areas.
The Zambian government has realized that people in rural areas have no access to ICT services including mobile phones and Internet services, hindering them from participation in the country’s development process, said Minister of Communication and Technology Dora Siliya.
“The extension of ICT facilities including mobile and Internet services in rural areas is key in improving the livelihoods of people and breaks the barrier that hinders them from participating in the national development process,” she said in an interview.
However, the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) Communications and IT Manager Kunda Mwila said the Zambia government should first devise incentives to encourage cost-effectives ICTs in rural areas. For instance, in line with universal access to ICTs, the Zambian government through the Communications Authority of Zambia must reduce or scrap the VSAT (Very Small Aperture Technology) license fees charged to users in rural areas.
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The Communications Authority of Zambia is a body appointed by the Zambia government to regulate the use of ICT in the country while ZNFU is a union that provides market information to its through the internet.
The Communications Authority of Zambia has set aside more than US$1 million under the rural ICTs development funds that will be given to any mobile and ISP willing to expand services to rural areas. The authority has, however, not given out any money, saying it is still working out a policy for how to distribute funds.
This is the first time that the Zambian government has invited ISPs to help provide ICTs in rural areas. The invitation came after mobile service provider Celtel Zambia accused the government of refusing to give the company tax incentives in order to expand service to rural areas.
Many service providers say the cost is too high for them to expand to rural areas.
This is a government whose priorities are skewed. They pay for wealthy people like Chiluba to go abroad for medical treatment but they leave a young student in UTH, unable to even afford a life saving chest operation. They charge such huge licence fees for any ICT venture that young Zambian starter-ups are priced out. Everything is skewed in favour of wealthy foreign investors. What they fail to appreciate is that foreign investors do not do charity. They are here to make profits. In my view, it is better to have one hundred small Zambian companies providing services than one huge foreign cooperation.
#1
How much do they charge for an ICT licence fee??
I am planning to invest in ICTs in both rural and urban Zambia in the near future.
New Passports next month
The Issuance of new passports is expected to start next month.
Home Affairs Permanent Secretary, Susan Sikaneta said the government has already put into place necessary logistics such as equipment for the entire process which kick start’s in July.
She told ZNBC news that training and recruitment of staff who will mann the new office is expected to start this month end.
The Home Affairs Permanent Secretary noted that Zambia decided to join the international community by bringing in a new passport with sophisticated features that cannot be forged.
Ata which new passports?4how long has the Govt been singing abt starting to issue new passports?This govt has failed us,they talk alot without delivering.
They chewed the money, how will they get passports with no stango?