The official handover ceremony of the equipment was done on Thursday 29 December, 2022. This follows a content production agreement that was signed between MACRA and MUBAS.

MUBAS Vice Chancellor, Associate Professor Nancy Chitera, described the donation as timely as it has come at an opportune time that MUBAS is re-establishing itself as a university whose focus is on innovation and entrepreneurship. The Vice Chancellor said the equipment will help MUBAS to provide the transformative space that will see its graduates being innovative and entrepreneurial.

“This equipment will allow MUBAS play a pivotal role in MACRA space to ensure high quality local content production for radio and TV stations,” explained Chitera. 

Chitera added that considering the contemporary world whose major drive is digital economy, the equipment will further help MUBAS train more local content producers and capacitate them to produce high quality content that can compete favorably on international levels.

MACRA Director General, Daud Suleman, pointed out that the equipment will go towards improving content production which is the future of the digital economy. Additionally, Suleman observed that in many countries content producers make a lot of money; hence, the need for more and well-trained media content producers.

The MACRA DG emphasized on the need for the media to move with times and do away with complex production equipment by adopting use of smartphones. “We are in the process of discussing with Facebook, Google and other platforms with the aim of monetizing the content created in Malawi,” said Suleman.

MACRA Board’s Director, Alekeni Menyani, said the local content production is being promoted to help broadcasters in Malawi to meet the 60 percent local content requirement.

Menyani explained that MACRA realised the local content production gap among broadcasters. He added that MACRA hopes that the equipment will go a long way in improving local content production and training of media professionals in Malawi.

MACRA will also refurbish the department of Journalism and Media Studies production studio which will house the equipment.