By Sylvester Kumwenda

Dowa, August 22, Mana: Director General for the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) Daud Suleman has said the new National Address System (NAS) being implemented in the country will help in improving social service delivery to citizens.

He made the remarks during a meeting MACRA engaged with stakeholders on Wednesday, on plans to role out NAS in Dowa district.

Suleman said currently the country has been using two address systems, postal code and traditional way of directions which poses various challenges and compromises provision of various services. The new NAS he said, will alleviate these challenges and provide new opportunities.

"We will have effective responses to emergencies by fire, police or ambulance departments, improved birth, death, marriage registration and verifiable proof of residence.

Also, improved provision of health services, and reshaped urban areas into user friendly towns and cities as it would be easy to track locations," said Sulemani.

He as such said Malawians must embrace the new development which he said also aligns Malawi to global developments in this modern and digitalized era.

Director of Postal and Ecommerce at MACRA, Kondwani kachika in an interview said the NAS is also an opportunity to improve on ecommerce as delivery of goods will become efficient, and it will also improve trade.

"For example Dowa is an agricultural district, and issues to do with buying, selling and transportation of agricultural commodities can only be simplified if all locations are properly identified. So this is a very important development," he said.

He said the project is being implemented in phases and is now completing remaining districts in the central region, before rolling out the final phase in southern Malawi.

Prerequisites for the New Address System include identifying and naming streets and roads, numbering houses according to the new system, marking and naming big buildings and mapping.

He said so far stakehokders across the country understand the benefit the NAS brings, but he urged against damaging of infrastructure.

"We still find that there are few elements within our society who vandalize the infrastructure that we put.

So we continue to plead with the leaders, even the local people on the ground to take care of the infrastructure that government, through MACRA is putting in place," he said.

Through the Communications Act of 2016, Parliament mandated MACRA to implement a comprehensive addressing system to allocate, manage and regulate addresses and postcodes.

Dowa District Council Chairperson Gift Songeya during the meeting said Dowa stakehokders have welcomed the initiative.

"It is a good development worth celebrating because it will help incorporate the district into the mapping system.

On the other hand, it will also help the council in service delivery as we will be able to identify locations, infrastructures, and even households and people with ease," he said.

So far, NAS has been rolled out in 20 districts.