Malawi’s persistent foreign exchange scarcity is choking investment in the telecommunications industry, threatening the rollout of digital infrastructure key to Malawi 2063 (MW2063), the country’s long-term development strategy, a new report has shown.
The Global Systems for Mobile Communications (GSMA) Report 2026 shows that Malawi can unlock K1.1 trillion in additional economic value and create 490 000 jobs by 2030 through targeted digital reforms.
While the central government and the Reserve Bank of Malawi have prioritised foreign exchange access for essential and strategic sectors such as fuel, medical drugs, fertiliser and agricultural inputs, mobile operators are currently excluded from the framework.
The report titled ‘Driving digital transformation of the economy in Malawi: Opportunities, policy recommendations and the role of mobile’, indicates that agriculture increasingly relies on digital technologies for precision farming and supply-chain management.
It further says that digital connectivity also supports payments, logistics, electronic-health and public services, which mean that weak telecommunications infrastructure can undermine productivity across the sectors being prioritised for foreign exchange.
This also creates a challenge for MW2063 vision of a productive, industrialised and digitally transformed economy, as achieving greater digital adoption requires sustained investment in reliable broadband networks and new technologies.
Reads the report in part: “Restrictions on forex access are significantly impacting operators’ ability to pay such companies and impacting quality of services and network infrastructure operations..”
GSMA Intelligence estimates that achieving 99 percent 4G population coverage could cost almost $130 million (about K228 billion) per operator, including capital expenditure and eight years of discounted operating costs.
GSMA Africa senior director of public policy Caroline Mbugua observed in the report that with 80 percent of the population still offline despite network coverage, the priority must be to turn access into meaningful use by addressing affordability, digital skills and investment barriers.
“With the right policy environment in place, Malawi has a clear opportunity to unlock significant economic growth and ensure that digital transformation benefits everyone,” she said.
In an interview yesterday, Malawi Internet Governance Forum chairperson Bram Fudzulani said that the country’s forex crisis requires a shift from rationing scarce hard cash to finding new ways of generating it, with information and communications technology services offering an opportunity to complement traditional exports such as tobacco, tea and coffee.
“We have spent a long time debating how to ration the dollars we have, when the more urgent question is how we earn more of them,” he said.
Minister of Information and Communications Technology Shadric Namalomba is quoted as having called for increased access to Internet while addressing the cost of smartphones, digital literacy and access to foreign currency to maximise digital economy gains.
He said digitalisation currently contributes about 6.5 percent to Malawi’s gross domestic product.
