The implementation of the World Bank-funded Digital Malawi Acceleration Project has been delayed due to a hold-up in assenting to the Inclusive Digitalisation in Eastern and Southern Africa Programme Bill of 2024.
Public Private Partnership Commission chief executive officer Patrick Kabambe said this on Wednesday during a meeting with the Budget and Finance Committee of Parliament.
He was briefing lawmakers on the status of the project.
The Bill, which Parliament passed in July, will allow the Government of Malawi to access a grant of 52.3 million special drawing rights (SDR) from the International Development Association (IDA) once it is gazetted.
SDRs are a type of international reserve currency used by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which can be exchanged for various foreign currencies.
In response to questions about the project’s status, Kabambe said the project was initially expected to begin this month, but could face a delay of about one month. The PPPC has since requested a one-month extension from the World Bank to secure the grant.
He said: “There are several things that we were supposed to do, like the environmental studies, the procurement plans and recruitment of the project implementation unit.
“All that has been done, but the remaining item for it to be effective is the ascenting of the parliamentary approval and gazetting of that.”
The project, designed to boost access to the Internet and enhance the government’s use of digitally enabled services, intends to connect 500 government institutions and 2 000 public schools to the Internet, the latter through the Malawi Research and Education Network (Maren).
Kabambe further told the committee that it will also support the government’s transition to a “next generation and cost effective” digital solutions that supports “streamlined identity verification needed by multiple sectors, enable secure digital authentication services, including electronic know -your-customer”.
In an interview on the sidelines of the event, the committee’s chairperson Gladys Ganda lamented the delay, saying the project’s foreign exchange injection could have helped ease the country’s current forex shortages.
She said: “There is about $10 million that would have gone to NRB [National Registration Bureau] for the national identity project.
“We cannot be losing out on critical resources like this because the bill is stagnating.”
Ganda called for a holistic review of the country’s procurement laws to reduce systematic inefficiencies that have historically delayed projects and the absorption of donor funds.
