By Tione Andsen
Lilongwe, May 31: Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) has said over 13.5 million sim cards are registered in the country with 1.8 million people using smart phones.
MACRA Director General, Daud Suleman disclosed this Thursday during a press briefing on Revenue Assurance System (RAS) implementation at Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe.
He said this should be taken into account that some Malawians have more than two sim cards that they are using for various reasons.
Suleman said it was estimated that over 11 million sim cards are used in ordinary phone and this brings an opportunity for them to migrate into smart phone usage.
“Once the 11 million are able to have smart phone, they will be looking forward to consume new products through their gadgets and the same time expanding the market base,” he added.
The Director General said we have over 3 million people with mobiles phones out of 20 million and assumed that the remaining 17 million would soon or later need to have their phones.
He said data operators still have potential in making sure that their services are affordable to local Malawians if they are to widen their business avenues.
A Likuni resident, George Harawa said smart phones have proved to be affordable to most Malawians.
“We are looking at the buying of he gadget, procurement of data and data usage at times leaves much to be desired. This boils down to the fact that many are preferring to use ordinary phones for calls only,” he viewed.
Harawa said the provision of buying phones on lay-byes in the country is almost not there unlike to our neighbouring countries.
