The group is to run the center as their own. Speaking during the opening ceremony, Rosebery Sawila Gondwe, an executive of the group, said the infrastructure which is replete with high tech computers, fax machines, photocopiers and phones, is a dream that has come true.

“Originally we were doing fish business but things began getting tougher for our group because of the scarcity of the fish in the lake and we had to think of diversifying. We started working on setting up a business centre, so we sent proposals to various organizations, we only got good response from MACRA who already had a project in the same line, they gave us all the equipment and we are very happy to have realized our dreams,” she said.

Gondwe said they are planning to expand the telecenter businesses to other parts of the district where business is also much better. “MACRA has set us on and we are happy, we are already in the process of opening another centre near the lodges in the lake shores, we are thinking of Monkey Bay and Cape Maclear,” she said.

Deputy Information Minister John Bande thanked MACRA for empowering women in the district through the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) that provided the funds. He said it was President Bingu wa Mutharika who sourced the funding from ITU to assist women and it is part of his blue print - Malawi Growth Development Strategy (MDGS) as well as Rural Integrated Services.

“Many people ask how ITU could know these women in Mangochi here, the truth is that when the State President went overseas in one of his trips, he interacted with people who showed interest to support some projects in Malawi.

“He asked them to empower women in business here in Mangochi and other districts, he also asked them to support Rural Integrated Services so that remote areas of the country are equally developed,” he disclosed.

MACRA Board Chair Thengo Maloya asked people in the area to support the women and patronize the centers because it is part of the development of the district. “These days a country which does not use technology in rural areas is seen as backwards, therefore it is the vision of the State President to see to it that Malawi is not in the class of backward countries, all we require is to support him in that.”