Authorities upbeat on NAS project

Authorities are hoping to be successful in the National Addressing System (NAS) project aimed at giving physical addresses to every property.

Capital Hill through the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) is implementing the project across the country.

Recently, MACRA engaged Blantyre District Council officials on the project in the commercial capital.

Speaking after the engagement, Mike Malikita who is the council’s chairperson said: “This is a good development which will make it easy for people to be identified where they are located and it will be easy for them to get access to many institutions.

“For this programme to be successful we well have to enforce our by-laws where necessary. For instance, those in urban centres are required to buy the numbers for themselves and we will make sure that is fulfilled.”

While commending the postcodes under the NAS project., Senior Chief Kapeni said he will take a leading role making sure that there is an understanding among community members about the development.

Kapeni said: “We need to be involved in sensitization to our people in the villages. We have a big weakness in our culture because when a new development come there is always huge resistance.”

According to MACRA, the project has a lot of socio-economic benefits which include effective response to emergency circumstances.

It is also expected that the initiative will increase accuracy in data collection by various bodies including the national statistical office.