Nyasa Mobile Limited partners Vodafone

Nyasa Mobile Limited (NML) has partnered Vodafone Group plc in a deal expected to create over 1 400 jobs in the next five years.

Business News has established thata team from Vodafone is in Malawi to meet government officials and assesses the business operating environment.

Confirming the development to Business News, NML chairperson Konrad Buckle said they hope to roll out in phases the end of the year.

He said their strategic partnership with Vodafone, one of the world’s largest mobile network operators, will help the company leverage mobile telephony services at competitive prices.

Buckle said: “The investment is quite significant to the point that we have some major direct foreign investors that are assisting us in syndicating this investment and making this new network possible.

“Before the end of the year, Malawians will be in for a pleasant surprise and affordable coverage, which has not been possible in the past 20 years. This is a massive project, it is going to be phased, but we will make sure that our ride out is as smooth as possible.”

He said they hope in the next five years to create 400 direct jobs and over a thousand jobs indirectly.

In a brief interview, an official from Vodafone Group plc while confirming the development, declined to give further details saying as a listed company, they have procedures before taking their issues to the press.

A recent Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority ICT Market Access Gap Study found that the information and communications technology (ICT) sector can generate about $13 million (K11 billion) revenue annually by providing mobile broadband signal to the uncovered two million Malawians.

The study found that operators have targeted most commercially-viable areas.

As a result, cities such as Lilongwe, Blantyre and Zomba  have nearly 100 percent coverage while in Chitipa, Rumphi and Mzimba, broadband coverage was 27 percent, 67 percent and 74 percent in that order.

Broadband—the transmission of wide bandwidth data over a high speed Internet connection— is a signal that combines 3G and 4G at fair signal levels.

Vodafone Group plc employs over 105 000 people and has more than 300 million mobile customers and 27 million fixed broadband customers across 21 operating countries and 52 partner markets.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the group has more than 185 million subscribers across eight countries and more than 88 million data customers.