Mining & Trade News

With about 40 percent of Malawi’s export potential laying in neighbouring countries in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), Malawi has the potential to ignite a trade-led growth by manufacturing and adding value to products along various agricultural and mineral resource value chains.

To achieve this, the Buy Malawi Strategy (BMS), an initiative that encourages local business competition through the production and sale of local products, can take advantage and capitalize on existing trade networks across the continent.

According to the strategy, the agriculture value chain is the main component that is targeted for exploitation because of its significance to the country’s economy as a major driving force behind employment and exports. Other significant growth sectors with competitive advantage include mining, forestry, ICT, retail and wholesale, transport and warehousing.

The strategy, which dovetails into the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) concept of creating a market of a combined GDP of US$3 trillion for African raw materials and finished goods to serve more than 1.2 billion people, has the potential to boost Malawi’s industralisation drive and consequently, the country’s economy.

Statistics indicate that for years, Malawi’s import bill has been growing while the trade deficient widened and foreign reserves declined due to the importation of various items such as fuel, drugs and raw materials for manufacturing.

Local experts believe that both the BMS and the AfCFTA facilities have the capacity to accelerate employment, empower and create wealth in Malawi through increased productivity and trade.

“If successfully implemented, the strategy will translate into job creation, increase in household incomes, higher national revenues and GDP growth and increased government spending on public services,” says Amos Tizora, Executive Director at the Circle for Integrated Community Development (CICOD). “The BMS and the AfCFTA) will contribute to reduction of poverty and transformation of people’s lives across Africa,” he adds.

Recently, President Lazarous Chakwera, who is also SADC chairperson, told the second Intra-African Trade Fair in Durban of the importance of advancing sustainable ways of manufacturing goods designed to have a positive impact on ordinary people’s lives.

Concurring, South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa said Africa should not provide employment and add value to other economies when its people are in poverty and conditions of under-development.

President Chakwera urged nations to create policies that would support Africa’s economic integration and strengthen industrialisation to make Africa the factory of the world.

The Intra-African Trade Fair is a key pillar of the AfCFTA. It gathered Africa’s political leaders who faced buyers and sellers from across the world to share trade, investment and market information as well as plans to support intra-African trade.

According to the Economic Commission for Africa, the AfCFTA agreement, signed by 54 of the AU’s 55 member states with Eritrea yet to join, has potential to increase intra-African trade by over 50 percent, while the World Bank projects that AfCFTA could add US$76 billion to the rest of the world in yearly income.

It is expected that the AfCFTA will boost intra-African export figures through the creation of a continental customs union; elimination of tariffs on 90 percent of intra-Africa goods; easing movement of capital and people between countries; facilitating external investment; and reducing non-tariff barriers.

Two of Malawi’s government ministries, Trade and Industry, architects of the BMS hope that the initiative “will substantially enhance competitiveness of local firms through stimulation of local production and growth.”

Malawi’s Greenbelt Authority is seeking bids from eligible contractors for the construction of irrigation scheme water intake works at Mwangolera, Nthola-Ilola irrigation scheme in Karonga District.

The Authority says in a statement that bidding will be conducted in accordance with the open tendering  procedures contained in Malawi’s Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act of 2017 and Public Procurement Regulations of 2020 and is open to all eligible bidders.

It says interested bidders may obtain further information from the procurement and disposal unit of the Greenbelt Authority in Lilongwe.

Interested bidders are requested to attend a mandatory site visit and pre-bid meeting at Nthola –ilola irrigation scheme on Tuesday December 9, 2021 at 10.00am. The point of meeting is at Karonga District irrigation office.

Bids must be submitted in sealed envelopes and clearly marked with the procurement reference number.

The deadline for submission of bids is December 17, 2021.

The Malawi Government established the Greenbelt Authority to champion large scale commercial irrigation whose main purpose is to accelerate social economic transformation through increased agricultural productivity, agro processing and easy access to markets.

Contact address

 The chairperson

Internal procurement and and disposal of assets committee

Greenbelt authority

Mwai house ( opposite TAMA house )

Floor # 2 –conference room

Convention drive

City Centre

Lilongwe.

The Malawi Government says it is yet to join the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA) on their campaign to end coal power generation globally.

PPCA is a group of 137 countries, cities, regions and orgamisations aimed dramatically accelerating the phasing out of fossil fuel such as coal through innovation and the deployment of clean technologies in five key sectors of the economy including: power, road transport, steel, hydrogen and agriculture.

Malawi’s stand on the development has been revealed after its participation at this year’s 26th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) which took place from October 31 to November 12, 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Alongside the conference, PPCA Secretariat and United Kingdom (UK) presidency hosted discussion and bilateral meetings on transition to clean and renewable energy, and clean cook stoves, championing campaign on phasing out coal generation; and delivering the historic Paris Agreement.

Presenting an update from the meetings in Parliament, Minister responsible for Forestry and Natural Resources Nancy Tembo said though many countries adopted the Glasgow Climate Pact and pledged to end coal power generation by 2030 and some 2040, Malawi is not ready to answer the call considering the current electricity situation.

Tembo said: “Malawi’s position is to join the Alliance later considering that the country is currently faced with electricity shortages which are slowing down social economic development, yet it has huge coal reserves that can be used for power generation but have not been exploited.

“Malawi has potential to generate 1000 MW from coal. This is very insignificant compared to about 2.045GW which is being generated from coal globally.”

“Nearly 200 countries adopted the Glasgow Climate Pact in Scotland late evening of Saturday November 13, 2021 at the end of COP26.”

“The outcome package asks countries to replace their 2030 national climate action targets with more ambitious emission reductions by the end of next year, 2022.”

“It also calls on countries to comply with standards set by the 2015 Paris Agreement, which asked countries to make changes to keep global warming “well below” 2°C and aim for 1.5°C by the end of 2022 to prevent climate catastrophe.”

According to Tembo, from the discussions and bilateral meetings they had on transition to clean and renewable energy, and clean cook stoves, more than 40 countries pledged to phase down use of coal, the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions; signatories to the deal including heavy coal users Poland, Ukraine and Vietnam.

She said also said developed countries pledged to phase out coal in the 2030s, with developing countries committing to a later timeline of 2040s.

From the meeting, Australia did not commit to phasing out the use of coal while at least 20 countries including Italy, Canada, the US and Denmark along with public financial institutions pledged to stop financing overseas fossil fuel industries by the end of 2022, diverting the cash to clean energy activities.

Tembo also reported that countries accounting for 90% of the world’s GDP pledged to reach net-zero emissions by the middle of this century.

Key among them was India which pledge to reach net-zero emissions by 2070 through a massive expansion of renewable energy in the next 10 years until it accounts for 50% of total usage, thereby reducing its emissions in 2030 by 1-billion tonnes from a current total of around 2.5 billion.

In Africa, rapidly developing Nigeria also pledged net-zero emissions by 2060.

Tembo said: “Malawi also committed 50% emission reduction target, if full external financial and technical support is received, by 2040, compared to the business-as-usual scenario, as outlined in the revised Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).”

“The Glasgow Pact also agrees to fund the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage which will connect vulnerable developing countries with those who can provide the technical assistance, knowledge and resources they will need to address climate risks and avert, minimize and address future losses and damage.”

“Malawi will benefit from the full operationalization of Network as it will support in determining country needs to address loss and damage from climate change.”

“At COP26, it was also interesting to see some developed countries coming forward to provide funding for loss and damage, for example Scottish Government has pledged financial support amounting to two million pounds towards a Loss and Damage Fund.”

During the discussions and bilateral meetings, Tembo was accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Eisenhower Nduwa Mkaka and Minister of Education Agnes Nyalonje.

President Chakwera has said that a vibrant private sector is crucial in stimulating the country’s economic growth and creating employment.

Speaking during launch of the Presidential Initiative on Job Creation, drawn to address youth unemployment and private sector productivity, Chakwera explained that the rise in the cost of living being experienced in the country is a result of a shift in economic prospects due to global dynamics and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 2020, the COVID–19 out-break, which mainly affected activities in tourism, the accommodation and food subsectors, transportation and agriculture, saw Malawi’s economic growth drop from 5.7 percent in 2019 to 1.7percent.  

Real GDP growth, expected to be driven by recoveries in the tourism and agriculture sectors, exports, FDI, and public investments in infrastructure (airport, roads, energy), is projected to grow at 3.3 percent in 2021 and 6.2 percent in 2022 despite threats of disruption from a potential COVID–19 third wave, bad weather, and fiscal overruns due to revenue underperformance.

To kick-start the initiative, Chakwera announced the partnership between the National Economic Empowerment Fund (NEEF) and mobile phone service provider TNM. The partnership intends to drive mobile phone penetration, financial inclusion, job creation and community development under the Presidential Initiative on Job Creation.

The president further said government has put in place measures that will generate an enabling environment for agro-business; stronger partnership with the private sector; solutions to tackling the barriers to small and medium enterprises; capacity to build the infrastructure needed to support jobs and supporting the youth to participate in the economy.

“Removing those obstacles is government’s responsibility and it begins here with my declaration that my administration will engage the private sector as partners,” he said while admitting that his government had failed to create one million jobs in the first year of his administration, as promised during the presidential election campaign.

He attributed the failure to the Covid-19 pandemic, which he claimed had reversed the gains made by his government and had cost the country 600 000 jobs from the time the first COVID-9 cases were reported in April 2020.

In a Hardtalk interview with British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Chakwera claimed his administration had covered up the loss with labour engagements in the Affordable (farm) Inputs Programme (AIP) and in NEEF, which he said had facilitated the creation of thousands of new businesses through the disbursement of business loans.

In an effort to enhance visibility of Malawi’s mountains on the global tourism network, government says it is set to commemorate this year’s International Mountain Day (IMD) on December 11, 2021 on Zomba plateau, one of the country’s source of inspiration.

Zomba plateau is a unique wilderness standing one foot in the city of Zomba (Malawi’s former capital city) and the other in the remote part of Zomba district. It attracts varying levels of visitors because of its fresh, clean air, diverse landscape and rich biodiversity.

Macpherson Nthara, the Chief Land Resource and Conservation Officer in the Ministry of Forestry and Natural Resources, says the commemoration to be cerebrated under the theme: “Sustainable Mountain Tourism – A Call for Action Towards the 2030 Agenda for Mountains” is aimed at promoting and supporting long-lasting initiatives for sustainable mountain conservation and development in Malawi.

The event, which is being coordinated by the World Mountain Partnership, will be led by a taskforce of local stakeholders drawn from the ministries of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources, Tourism, Culture and Wildlife.

“Mountains are an integral part of the tourism sector in Malawi considering that a number of tourist attraction sites in Malawi are located on mountains,” says Nthara who explained the country’s intention to promote the economic sustainability of mountains and the tourism industry as a whole.

“Mountains host a wide range of ecosystems such as forests, grasslands, rivers and wetlands. These contain a wide range of biodiversity which is a vital source of food, medicine and for tourism,” he observes but is also quick to note that despite their importance, mountains have received little attention in national discussions focusing on the environmental and developmental issues.

The Zomba massif is touted for its cedar, pine and cypress plantations as well as the wild vegetation, fresh water streams, tumbling waterfalls and still lake-like dams.

Visitors enjoy scenic viewpoints, hiking, trekking and walking where they may have the chance to encounter or catch a sight of wildlife including leopards, giant butterflies, baboons as well as have specular time enjoying the unique birdlife and trout fishing

Nthara stresses the need for the country to recognize the ecosystems services provided by mountains and intensify efforts aimed at conserving them whilst implementing a localized agenda of the UN Sustainable Development Goals to which Malawi is part of.

As part of increasing awareness on the importance of mountains for the health of the planet and well-being of billions of people, activities lined up for the day include hiking trips, tree planting exercises, press briefings and a panel discussion on “Sustainable Mountain Tourism’’ where experts in tourism and environmental sectors will talk on the need to safeguard mountain ecosystems and will highlight the tourism potential in mountains.

Historically commercial agriculture has been a male dominated sector. In recent years the advancements in mechanisation and agricultural technologies have levelled the “playing field” and opened the doorway to gender equality within the sector. Farming and Engineering Services Limited Malawi (FES) who have been operating in this space since 1967 and are one of the most progressive and transformative players in the agricultural contracting and ag tech sector have demonstrated this through their adoption of female operators to man their equipment.

Some of the highly specialised contracting operations conducted by the dedicate women of FES include drone aerial survey, land forming and drone chemical crop protection. More than half of the pilots employed by FES to operate their fleet of DJI Agras T16/20/30 drones, which were developed at a cost of over R400-million, are young local females. Clayton Prowse, the Operations Manager at the FES Nchalo operation in Chikwawa, stated that “the female pilots operate in a less reckless manner and are less inclined to take unnecessary risks. This results in reduced downtime and improves mechanical availability of the equipment”. These female drone pilots are also responsible for drone based RTK topographical surveys using a fleet of DJI Phantom 4 RTKs and Matrice drones. The surveys are used as an input to the OptiSurface and MultiPlane software packages used to redesign fields for optimal surface water management. These designs are then uploaded to RTK guidance systems within the Challenger 865C/E tractors. These tractors pull 18 cubic meter dual land-forming scrapers to reshape the field surface for effective water management. This operation is coincidentally also predominantly performed by one of their most trusted and female operators, Mary Thalo. Mary has been with FES since 2012 and is a multiskilled operator, who aside from the land-forming, is also responsible for operating a tile-plough to install sub-surface drainage pipes and doubles as an operator on some of the larger yellow-plant equipment.

Commercial agricultural operations are about more than just operating equipment, there are also many supporting functions within the sector. AgriLab, a part of the FES group, is an ISO 17025 certified soil, water and leaf analysis laboratory. AgriLab endeavours to uplift local and international farmers by helping them increase the productivity of their soils through soil and leaf analysis followed up by fertilizer recommendations. Within the lab several of the lead scientists are also female. Other positions such as managers, mechanics, auto electrician and back-office staff, which have traditionally been filled by male employees, are now increasingly being filled by female employees. Justin Domleo, FES Group Head of Contracting, attributes this to “the increased number of female graduates passing through academic institutions and training academies operating in the sector, such as the African Drone and Data Academy in Malawi”. 

This is great news for employers in the sector as there is now a greater number of suitably qualified candidates from which to recruit and gender is not considered to be a selection criterion. In a sector where female participation has in the past been skewed toward the unskilled positions such as manual weeding, the new norm is a more naturally balanced and fair environment. 

Operating in a country where the UN gender inequality index ranks 173 of 189, FES is proud to support women in agriculture and promote the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

There is a need for farmers in the country to adopt the rearing of hybrid breeds of livestock which are highly productive in order to substantially benefit from their activities, this is the view of Nyasha Mbenje, Director for Ntheu-based Well-done Livestock Suppliers (WLS).

Mbenje, whose organization breeds and sells highly productive Boer goats to farmers told Agri Business Review, that rearing of hybrid livestock can hugely benefit farmers through increased income from meat and milk sales as well as assist in boosting the national forex reserve through export of animal products.

She, therefore, advised Veterinary and Livestock Development Department (VLDD) in the Ministry of Agriculture to make sure that hybrid breeds of livestock are made available and accessible to farmers across the country.

Mbenje, however, applauded government for showing interest in encouraging farmers to venture into serious animal production through providing them with Boer goats which, she said, would help them realise their economic dreams besides helping the country meet the population’s demand for animal protein.

“I must appreciate government’s gesture of ensuring that farmers start keeping hybrid breeds of goats. Currently, government is providing rural farmers with Boer goats, the activity that would help them realise their economic dreams. In this program, some farmers are given male and female goats for breeding and their offsprings are passed on to other farmers,” she said.

Mbenje, however, said that there is more that government should do to improve local livestock development sector. She suggested training and deployment of more veterinary experts to the rural areas where they should be responsible for providing veterinary services to farmers.

Meanwhile, some local livestock development experts have complained over the decline of the livestock subsector in the country, which they have attributed to government’s failure to encourage farmers to take livestock production seriously.

Malawi Milk Producers Association (MMPA) Director Herbert Chagona said there is an urgent need for the country to address numerous challenges affecting animal production sector such as low productivity due to the rearing of local breeds. He said farmers should be encouraged to keep hybrid livestock which are fast growing and highly productive.

He disclosed that as one way of ensuring that MMPA members benefit from their works, the organization imports and distributes hybrid cattle and goats that produce more milk, a scheme which only benefits their member associations.

“As milk producers association we encourage our members to keep hybrid types of livestock because they produce more yields. To ensure that our dream is realized, we import hybrid goats and cattle which are distributed to our members,” said Chagona.

Lilongwe Agricultural Development Division (ADD) programs officer Dr James Nkhoma admitted that the local livestock subsector has declined over the past years.

But while admitting that privatization of some vetenary services has affected the sector, Nkhoma quickly explained that there are a number of activities being done to promote livestock development which include ensuring availability and accessibility of hybrid livestock breeds to farmers.

“As Lilongwe ADD, we admit that there is retrogression in the livestock subsector of Agriculture. Privatisation of some veterinary services is among factors contributing to the decline. However, there are some remarkable initiatives happening that include the importation and distribution of hybrid livestock to farmers, ” he explained.

While Sparks Soza, an official at Kasungu ADD said the decline of the livestock subsector is not as a result of government’s laxity to promote the subsector but farmers’ lack of interest to embrace livestock farming as a result of unavailability of grazing land, among other reasons.

“Its indeed true that the local livestock production industry is collapsing. But there are a number of factors contributing to that including lack of grazing land,” he said.

Erica Maganga, Ministry of Agriculture Principal Secretary recently said government is determined to ensure that the local livestock production sector reclaims its lost glory.

“The farmers have been told that, through rearing high yielding hybrid breeds of livestock they can hugely benefit from their works,” she said.

Government through the ministry of Agriculture has repeatedly advised farmers to adopt the keeping of hybrid livestock which are quick maturing and highly productive.

The livestock subsector in Malawi is relatively small and undeveloped. It contributes only about seven percent to agricultural GDP and just 12 percent to the total value of agricultural production.

Over 50 percent of the over 2-million smallholder families are involved in livestock production.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, only 10 percent of total household expenditure in Malawi is on livestock products which account for about 1.3 percent of total dietary protein intake.

Current production and consumption levels are woefully insufficient by international standards, and even below sub–Saharan levels.

Animal populations are considerably low and those for cattle have been decreasing since 1987. In view of the anticipated increase in population to about 18 million from 12 million in 2010, Malawi will face massive deficits in the supply of animal protein if food production, including livestock, does not grow faster.

Unless production increases, the country will have to continue to import substantial amounts of livestock products, which could be a drain on foreign reserves.

A local cooperative union, the Community Savings and Investment Promotion (COMSIP), says it has promoted about 320 legume farmers in the country through its Legume Enterprise and Structure Production (LESP) program, which it kick-started in 2015.

COMSIP says through LESP they have promoted the farmers through offering of loans and matching grants, marketing their produce and teaching them on how they can save their investments.

Cooperate Development and Investment Officer for COMSIP Paul Kamwendo said in the past five years the union has been promoting production of legumes including sugar beans, soya, pigeon peas, groundnuts, rice and others.

Kamwendo said as a capacity building organization promoting savings and investment among groups that do not have accounts with commercial banks, they launched the programme with the understanding that many of union members are farmers and they rely on agribusiness.

He said: “In 2013, we saw that so many groups are looking for market for agricultural products and after doing some research we saw that we could invest and save money in groups but first we were looking at what was coming out of our investment and farming activities.”

“Issues that were hindering us were about market linkages and the financial support, and for that point we introduced the programme called Legume Enterprise and Structured Production (LESP).”

“On financial support, in the first year it was 70% loan and 30% matching grant and the subsequent year it was 50% loan and 50% matching grant while third year it was 30% and 70%.”

“The fourth year, it is 100% grant because they had to graduate in the process than having the same group all the years getting the same percentage of loan and at the same time our basis is to reach many groups other than dwelling on the same group.”

In 2019, COMSIP in collaboration with Harvest Plus, an organization which is fostering and advocating for seed multiplication by fortified seeds, adopted the orange maize Vitamin-A.

Kamwendo said the adoption of Vitamin-A was ideal with the coming of government’s school feeding program which identified the crop as so nutritious and the demand increased, giving an opportunity for farmers to make more profits.

He also said the promotion of the orange maize vitamin-A in collaboration with Harvest Plus is a surplus to what the union has already been doing on legume production.

Kamwendo said through the collaboration, they managed to produce about 300 metric tons in the first year of production while this year they have produced about 400 metric tons of orange maize vitamin A.

However, he lamented lack of financial support as a bottleneck to farmers in the country to fully excel in agribusiness.
He said some farmers fail to access loans from commercial banks in fear of issues to do with collateral and other bank demands including insurance.

Kamwendo said: “Every bank is looking for a farmer that has a ready buyer with ample financial resources. So many of these farmers are subsistence farmers and they do not have such kind of a market.”

“In the legume market, some of the buyers are not coming up with such kind of platform where they offer agricultural contracts.”
“Malawi will become a food basket only if the farmers are assisted financially. You know Malawians are hard workers and in Malawi what many know that brings food or money in their basket is farming.”

“If all farmers in all groups will access agribusiness loans, we will be assured that the Malawian economy will grow because they will have the muscle to compete on the market,” he said.

He also called for mindset change for farmers to start considering farming as a business so that they remain resilient in times of changes of prices of commodities.

He said: “This time our farmers are crying that fertilizer prices have gone up but I will change that to say farming cost has gone up.”

“It means that as a business, this should result in hiking price for that commodity to make profits, prices of legumes should also go up.”

“The market should prepare that the prices have gone up not just be crying. Now you should be thinking that these materials have gone up.”

Nationwide, COMSIP has 895 groups with a membership of 55,781 of which over the years has been facilitating growth of the groups into well managed, member-driven savings and investment institutions which have fully integrated enterprise development at their core.

Generally, COMSIP collaborates with various partners including policy direction and support from Government of Malawi (GOM) and other agencies such as National Local Government Finance (NLGFC), and development partners mainly the World Bank and German Technical Cooperation (GIZ).

The collaboration with various stakeholders helps in enhancing capacity building, general project management and coordination, savings mobilization, nutrition and health, business management and financial literacy among the rural and urban poor households.

There is need for more Malawians to invest in mechanized commercial agriculture if the country is to meet its aspirations contained in the Malawi 2063 vision.

State President Lazarus Chakwera said this at the launch of the 10 year implementation plan for Malawi 2063 that was held at Bingu International Convention Centre in Lilongwe.

He said a person’s educational qualifications or economic status should not be a deterrent factor from participating in farming activities.

Chakwera said: “There are some in our midst who still need to be convinced to start farming because they think they are too educated or too cool to farm.”

“I notice that the Implementation Plan says that we need to digitize farming in order to make it more attractive to young people.”

“I believe that this is not the right way to say it. The right way to say it is that we need to digitize farming in order to make farming more efficient and more productive, and at the same time, we need to reeducate our youth to understand that farming is one of the surest paths to the wealth and prosperity they desire.”

He said there is need for more young people in Malawi’s colleges and universities to be aspiring either to use their education to make farming smarter or to use farming as a foundation for building wealth they can invest in building other industries they are trained in.

“There is no reason a person trained as a doctor cannot build wealth from smart farming and use that wealth to build a hospital. There is no reason a person trained as a teacher cannot use wealth from smart farming and use that wealth to build a school,” he said.

The Malawi 2063 blueprint, which seeks to transform Malawi into a middle income country by the year 2063, has prioritized agricultural commercialization, diversification and mechanization.

The government aims at transforming the agricultural industry from subsistence to commercial farming by encouraging farmers to not only be growing crops like maize only for their households, but engage in large scale farming that will see them using large scale machines in the farms.

Agriculture remains the mainstay of the economy, contributing close to a quarter of the country’s GDP and employing about 64 percent of the labour force.

Close to 80 percent of Malawians rely on rain-fed smallholder agriculture for food.

Though the sector is enjoying huge financial support from both the Government and development partners, production and productivity has remained below its potential and is insufficient to match the increasing demand from domestic and export markets because of low levels of improved farm input use, limited private investment, and low mechanization levels, among others.

Government’s agricultural commercialization drive is eyeing incorporating the use of heavy machinery that will ease workforce that farmers encounter.

The National Planning Commission (NPC), the driver of the MW2063, has prioritized youths as main players in the vision saying they are a fundamental human resource capital.

NPC’s Chairperson Prof. Richard Mkandawire said: “On this journey, our main assets remain the youth, including the girl child. And rightly so, the MIP-1 emphasizes engendered interventions that will promote youth engagement both in action and benefits through-out its Pillars and Enablers.”

“Along with this will be ensuring that our education system and institutions of higher learning are capacitated by both state and non-state actors as purveyors of relevant and employable skills. Skills that should be aligned to the MIP-1 priorities and Malawi 2063 vision generally.”