Mining & Trade News

As banana production is dwindling in the country leading to massive importation of the fruit from neighbouring countries such as Tanzania, a local horticulture firm Synthesis Agriculture has embarked on interventions to scale up cultivation of the crop.

Production of bananas in Malawi has declined due to the outbreak of the Banana Bunchy Top Disease.
Director of Programmes and Marketing for Synthesis Agriculture Mphatso Chiyembekeza said, among other interventions, Synthesis Agriculture is conducting training programmes for farmers on banana cultivation.

He also said the company has conducted research to come up with resistant varieties of the crop and the current banana suckers their researchers are producing easily adapt to the weather patterns of the all banana growing areas in Malawi.

“Malawi used to produce lots of bananas in districts like Thyolo and Mulanje but the outbreak of the disease has drastically affected production. As Synthesis Agriculture, we intervened through research and later introduced the banana suckers that we give to farmers for free,” he said.

Chiyembekeza said it is worrisome that currently some parts of the country are relying on imported bananas, the development that is draining foreign exchange for Malawi and robbing the farmers of income they could have generated from the sale of the fruit.

“Most of the bananas that are being consumed in Malawi are being imported from other countries more especially Tanzania yet we used to have lots and lots of bananas some years ago.”

Chiyembekeza, however, bemoaned resistance by some farmers especially in Thyolo District to uproot the old banana varieties and plant the new disease resistant varieties.

He, therefore, appealed to stakeholders to assist the company in sensitizing the farmers on the advantages of growing the newly developed varieties.

Synthesis Agriculture has, meanwhile, called upon more Malawians to venture into banana farming to meet local market demand for the fruit.

The Banana Bunchy Top Diseases emerged in late 2009 with Thyolo and Mulanje being heavily affected districts before it spread to other banana growing areas putting banana cultivation at the risk of extinction in Malawi.

As of 2016, it was reported that the disease had wiped off the crop affecting 185,000 banana farming households.
Malawi imports about 20,000 tonnes of bananas per week mainly from Tanzania and Mozambique.

The Farmers Union of Malawi (FUM) says there is huge information gap between the supply and demand sides of agriculture financing in the country saying there is a need for more interventions and coordination to narrow the gap.
FUM made the remarks during the inaugural annual agri-financing conference that was organized jointly with the Bankers Association of Malawi (BAM) under the theme; Improving Agricultural productivity and commercialization through access to affordable agriculture finance.

FUM Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jacob Nyirongo said the conference is one way FUM and BAM are utilizing in narrowing the information gap as it gives various stakeholders a platform to discuss and deliberate on how to improve the agri-financial part of the sector.

Nyirongo also said the conference augers well with the aspirations of the country reflected in the Malawi 2063 development agenda which ranks the agricultural sector as the main pillar towards achieving the vision.

He said: “The objectives of this conference are not exhaustive. Our ultimate objective is that through this conference farmers, financing institutions, private sector players and other players along the agriculture value chain should be able to venture into sustainable strategic business partnerships that will fast-track the agriculture transformation agenda.”

“As Union, we strongly believe that challenges that have stagnated our agricultural sector are very diverse hence demanding concerted efforts when attempting to deal with them.”

“It is for this reason that we collaborated with the BAM to initiate the process of creating this platform whereby key players in agriculture sector will be able to have an in-depth discussion on how we can enhance availability, accessibility and affordability of agricultural financing instruments in the country.”

Nyirongo lamented that the country continues grappling with low access and uptake of agricultural financing instruments despite numerous deliberate interventions and programs being implemented by the Government, non-governmental organisations and financing institutions to improve the uptake of agri-financing instruments in the country.

He said the sector will remain rudimentary unless efforts are made by key stakeholders in the agriculture sector to achieve significant increase in productivity, mechanization and commercialization.

In his remarks, Controller of Agricultural Services in the Ministry of Agriculture, Alexander Bulirani, said the Malawi Government believes that boosting agricultural production requires investments in irrigation, mechanization, fertilizer and improved seeds.

Bulirani said Malawi’s agricultural sector cannot grow in the categories of agricultural diversification, value-addition and agro-processing if the country continues to experience low access to finance for capital investment.

He said his Ministry has embarked on various interventional programs to ensure that farmers that are lagging behind due to lack of access to finance are assisted.

Bulirani said: “The government is currently implementing the Agricultural Commercialization Project (AGCOM) across the country, a flagship project that is providing the much needed capital to farmers for them to commercialize their production.”

“The government also instituted the Malawi Industrial and Agricultural Investment Corporation (MAIIC) in 2018 mandated to drive private sector-led economic development through mobilization of finance, skills and technology for sustainable wealth creation.”

“My Ministry also launched the Farmer Organization Strategy late last year and through this strategy, the Ministry is collaborating with other stakeholders to build strong farmer organizations that will be able to manage agricultural loans thereby reducing the risk of lending money to smallholder farmers.”

He also announced that the Ministry of Agriculture will soon be collaborating with other Ministries to embark on developing the Agricultural Financing Policy that will significantly contribute towards creating enabling environment for the agricultural commercialization agenda.

BAM Second Vice President Zandile Shaba urged banks in the country to come up with deliberate policies to finance agriculture saying the development can increase the added value of raw materials; strengthen local rural economies, food security and nutrition; and improve the quality of life in many homes at risk of exclusion and vulnerability.

Shaba stressed that policies, incentives and regulatory frameworks that safeguard and promote agro-industries have proven to be highly effective in lifting rural populations out of poverty in many countries.

She said from now onwards the country must take a full value chain approach from the farm to the table by greatly investing in the private sector across the agricultural value chains including modern seed and fertilizer companies, agricultural mechanization, irrigation and water management, warehousing, commodity exchanges, food manufacturing and processing, logistics, cold storage and transport.

Shaba said: “Malawi should not be a consumption center; it must be an agro-industrial center. Malawi must export processed tobacco, not leafy tobacco.”

“It must export specialized coffee with distinctively ‘aroma of Malawi’ instead of coffee beans, and export finished textile products and not cotton lint.”

“With access to finance in mind, we should not forget that modernization of the agricultural sector requires that we improve the functioning of agricultural markets.”

“Rapid progress has to be made on the development of commodity exchanges to improve farmers’ access to markets.”
“Commodity exchanges allow for better price discovery and can be effectively linked to warehouse receipt systems that allow farmers to use their grains as collateral for accessing credit from financial institutions.”

Shaba explained that structured markets are important for balancing capacities and prices of agricultural commodities and broadening of foreign exchange earnings.

She said if the structured markets are supported by export mandates, they could limit informal cross-border trade and increase agricultural exports.

The conference was premised on the following objectives: To provide a platform for open debate on policy and regulatory instruments that can enable effective performance of the agricultural financing sector; to provide a platform to financial service providers to present portfolios of their financing instrument that are tailor-made for agriculture; to provide a platform to farmers and agriculture practitioners to provide feedback on the way agricultural financing instruments are designed and; to provide an opportunity to financing institutions to market their products to farmers and other stakeholders.

The World Bank has faulted the Malawi Government on the implementation of the Affordable Input Subsidy Programme (AIP) saying its huge budget is weighing heavily on allocations to development of potential agricultural commercialization and diversification areas such as production of legumes for export.

In the Country Private Sector Diagnostic Report dubbed Creating Markets in Malawi, the World Bank urges Government to increase resource allocation for productive investments in the agriculture sector, including by reviewing and adjusting the AIP to improve efficiency in terms of distribution, targeted farmers most likely to benefit from the subsidy, and fiscal sustainability.

It says though the roll out of AIP and beneficial weather conditions have resulted in bumper harvest, the longer term effects and implications of the AIP need to be closely monitored.

President Lazarus Chakwera led government, launched the AIP in October 2020, as a successor programme to the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP) which was being implemented by the previous administration.

“The budget allocation for the AIP is four times that of the FISP in its final year, absorbing nearly half of the overall agricultural budget. This crowds out productive investments in the sector that could promote commercialization and more sustainable farming practices,” reads the report.

It says by widening incentives for maize production, the AIP also departs from years of effort to promote intercropping and diversification into other, more lucrative commercial crops, such as legumes.

“Reliance on a single crop weakens resilience to production and price shocks—unfortunately all-to-common occurrences for Malawi’s farmers,” states the Bretton Wood institution in the report.

The AIP has scaled up government subsidy support making it available to over 3.7 million smallholder farmers from 900 thousand supported by FISP in its final year.

The program aims to boost maize production to ensure national and household food –sufficiency while also creating a market surplus keeping in line with FISP.

The AIP has a budget of more than US$212-million (MK160-billion) representing 45% of the total agriculture sector budget and 7% of the FY2020/21 national budget proposed in September 2020, this is a tremendous increase from the FISP budget which had been brought down to roughly US$ 46.3 million (MK35 billion) in FY2019/20.

In the report, the Bretton ood institution also challenges the Malawi government to reduce leakages and increase transparency in the implementation of AIP to ensure that the programme does not become another mechanism that only generates rents for political and business elites as it was happening in the implementation of FISP by the past leadership.

The report reviews that in the past those with close relations to the political leadership benefited quite a lot from the programme.

Reads the report: “The AIP requires the participation of a broader set of private sector players simply due to the programme’s holding both suppliers and the Government accountable for true delivery of the quality inputs and timely fulfillment of payouts,”

“Success will depend on transparent contracting and enforcement, holding both suppliers and the government accountable for timely delivery of high-quality inputs and timely fulfillment of payments.”

The Bank observes that unlike FISP, the AIP does not provide coupons for legumes. Though sorghum and rice are included in the programme, experience has shown that they are not redeemed by farmers, who prefer maize as part of the cereal coupon.

It says such focus on increasing maize production detracts from efforts to diversify agricultural production.
“Malawi already suffers from an overdependence on maize, which drives soil degradation and increase vulnerability to climate shocks and pests, like the fall army worm,” the report reads.

The Bank also points out that continued focus on maize input subsidies reduces fiscal space to invest in other important sector priorities, such as irrigation and extension services.

It explains that with crop yields highly dependent on precipitation, input subsidies have experienced diminishing returns.

The report reads: “Yields have largely stagnated over the last decade, despite the FISP. The program accounted for over 40 percent of government spending on social protection between 2011 and 2019, yet more than half of Malawians continued to face severe food insecurity.”

“Analysis has shown that shifting some of the input subsidy expenditures into other social protection programs would be more effective in improving food security, while allocating a larger share of resources to investment in irrigation infrastructure and extension services to improve climate-smart agricultural practices would help to boost resilience to shocks.”

Smallholder farmers account for over 80 percent of Malawi’s agricultural production, but very few are market oriented.
More than 90 percent of farmers grow maize but just 10 percent sell it in markets, and fewer than one in five belong to a functional farmer organization.

The farmers farm on mostly small and fragmented plots, with limited and often unclear rights to the land. Tenure for most land is determined through customary systems and community ownership, which reduces the incentive to invest in the land, keeping productivity and yields low.

According to the report, Malawi’s top 10 exports in 2019 were agricultural products, and all but one have become increasingly important to the country’s export basket over the past 10 years. Small but significant steps have been taken to increase total value addition across the sector since the mid-2000s.

Raw tobacco exports, for example, have fallen since 2010, as exporters have increased primary processing to reduce bulk and weight prior to transport out of the country.

Exports of roasted coffee are another good example, becoming a million-dollar export industry in just a few years.
Other rapidly growing exports include pigeon peas, dried legumes, sesame, nuts, groundnuts, and soybean seed.

“At the same time, global demand for some important exports—notably, tobacco, raw cane sugar, and common peas—has been falling since 2015, emphasizing the need for continued diversification to respond to the market,” reads the report.

The Public Private Partnership Commission (PPPC) says commencement of the construction of the Mpatamanga Hydropower Plant, which was scheduled for this year, has been shifted to next year.

The project, which will see the injection of a total of 350MW into the national power grid will be constructed at Mpatamanga Gorge, along the Shire River.

It is being developed through a Public Private Partnership Model in which EGENCO will hold 30% shareholding on behalf of the Government of Malawi.

The other shareholders will be the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation to retain 30% and a strategic partner to hold 40% of the investment.

PPPC CEO Patrick Kabambe disclosed to Mining and Trade Review that the project will not start this year due to on-going negotiations with two international energy firms SN Power Invest of The Netherlands and Electricite De France SA of France which have so far submitted their final technical and financial proposals for assessment.

Kabambe said the two investors have merged to work as a consortium for the project anticipated to be finalized by 2025.

Kabambe said; “We are still under negotiations, the investors submitted their final offer on September 17,2021 and we have just finished evaluation of the proposal, the next step is to embark on negotiations on final details.”

“We understand that citizens’ key instrument is the analysis of whether these companies will be affordable enough to meet current power needs, of which it is noted that this project is worth investing considering the funds being spent in maintaining gensets.”

He also cited that once commissioned, Mpatamanga will double Malawi’s power generation capacity hence paving way for more investment opportunities in the country as major industrial operations have been failing to commence in Malawi due to power deficiency.

Kabambe said: “We have seen many industrial projects in various sectors including mining failing to rollout with some pulling out to other countries due to energy scantiness, but once this project is commissioned, we are optimistic such distresses will halt.”

“And with the coming in of the interconnector with the Southern Africa Power Pool, we stand solid chances of exporting excess power to other countries, equating to new revenue channels for Malawi.”

The project will also assist in meeting future power demand during both peak and off-peak periods, improve the performance of the existing power system due to inclusion of a storage reservoir to support peaking operation as well as significantly reduce the sediment inflow into the Kapichira reservoir, increasing power generation at the plant and prolonging the lifetime of the reservoir.

The total investment on the project is estimated to be approximately US$850-million and a comprehensive World Bank-financed feasibility study for the project was completed in 2018.

During the study, a UK-based global engineering, management, and development consultancy firm Mott MacDonald, Malawi-based C12 Consultants, and France-based biodiversity and ecosystem consultancy Biotope were engaged to carry out the environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) for the project.

Malawi vice president, Dr. Saulosi Chilima, has called on world business magnates and leisure seekers to come to Malawi and experience the country’s rich and diverse culture, trade and tourism investment opportunities

Speaking during the Malawi National Day at the Dubai Expo 2020, Chilima explained that Malawi is a land full of untapped opportunities in agriculture, tourism, mining and manufacturing.

“I wish to invite investors here in Dubai to explore investment opportunities in areas like eco-tourism, hotel, camps and lodges, water and lake sports, wilderness safari, energy generation, minerals beneficiation and agro processing,” he stressed.

Chilima, who is also Malawi’s minister of economic planning and development and public sector reforms assured prospective investors that apart the numerous investment and trade opportunities, Malawi has a hard-working and trainable workforce, a peaceful and welcoming environment and a strong judicial system.

In a speech tailored to reiterate the world trade fair’s theme ““Connecting Minds, Creating the Future”, as well as its sub-themes of sustainability, mobility and opportunity, Chilima called on participants to come and explore Malawi’s mineral resource opportunities which include agro-minerals for fertilizer production, energy and industrial minerals such as bauxite, iron, gypsum, coal, and uranium.

The vice president, however, pointed out that so far Malawi has only been able to export tobacco, dried peas, soya beans, sesame seeds, tea and coffee to the UAE.

But he challenged that apart from exporting the mentioned products, Malawi can also supply the UAE with frozen goat meat, fresh fruits and vegetables as well as value added products such as sugar and edible oils, whose raw materials are abundant in Malawi.

Transport access for goods to UAE from landlocked Malawi is through Indian Ocean sea ports in Tanzania and Mozambique but for perishables and other sensitive goods, an Emirates Airlines freighter plane with necessary facilities makes routine landings in Malawi.

Malawi is signatory to a number of multilateral and bilateral trade agreements such as the COMESA, SADC, AfCFTA, EU and UK GSP and AGOA, which provide preferential access to world markets.

The 2020 fair has been held this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is expected to run till March 2022.

Meanwhile, the gathering is regulated by strict precautions, including mask and vaccination requirements, and limitations to the number of people in the fair and in exhibition pavilions.

The United Nations is also part of the fair highlighting the sustainable-development goals (SDGs).

NBM Development Bank, which is a subsidiary of Malawi’s financial powerhouse National Bank of Malawi (NBM), says it has earmarked funds to lend to enterprises embarking on production of clean and renewable energy.

NBM Development Bank Projects Officer Tothola Gonthi told Mining and Trade Review that under the financing product, the Bank offers long and medium term loans, equity and quasi equity capital, Credit Risk Guarantees and leasing facilities to qualifying Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in line with its strategic objectives and business model.

Gonthi said: “Basically we are financing projects that are trying to deliver clean and renewable energy, including charcoal briquettes in a quest to eliminate use of environmentally hazardous stoves.”

“The development bank has been financing these projects for the past two years, but we commenced full scale financing last year, 2020.”

He said the Bank has not set a limit in terms of amount of funds to be loaned out since it intends to finance as many players as possible as there is a huge market for renewable energy in Malawi catalyzed by the country’s power deficiency.

Gonthi said the Bank will finance enterprises that demonstrate impact in terms of promoting environmental and social-economic sustainability including clean energy projects for low income population such as development of clean stoves for cooking, water purifiers and solar lightning projects.

So far, the Bank has disbursed over K427 million to various players in renewable energy sector including solar system supply retailers.

Gonthi explained: “Basically for one to qualify for our financing opportunity, the enterprises are supposed to be solely dealing in clean and renewable energy, and they have to submit a comprehensive business proposal as it is vital to determine and weigh the prospects of business in proportion to the funds being sought-after,”

“We finance start-ups as well as those that are intending to expand, for example Pan Green Africa which is venturing into charcoal briquettes production, we financed them from start up to the extent they are in production.”

With the minimum amount of capital financing pegged at MK 15 million and Maximum of MK 150 million, the Bank has so far financed over six enterprises which are currently on production phases.

Malawi’s energy sector is one of the most severely constrained in sub-Saharan Africa as less than 10% of the population of 18 million is connected to the national electrical grid. For 80% of the people living in rural areas, access to electricity is less than 1%.

The total installed capacity for power generation in the interconnected grid of Malawi operated by Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) is approximately 362 MW, of which 351 MW is hydropower and 11 MW is power produced from reciprocal engines.

Estimates indicate that shortage of capacity frequently exceeds 60 MW, or over 17% of peak demand in Malawi. With no reserve margin and a stressed system, the reliability and quality of electricity supply is poor.

Malawi depends on domestic generation, as there are currently no significant interconnections to neighboring countries.

The National Construction Industry Council (NCIC) has warned foreign construction companies against sidestepping laws that regulate the industry in Malawi.

According to a press statement issued by the Council, some foreign companies working or intending to provide construction services in the country deliberately avoid to comply with the regulations that compel them to provide services through joint ventures or subcontracting agreements with local firms.

Clarifying on the statement, NCIC Acting Chief Executive Officer, Engineer Gerald Khonje stressed the need for foreign firms to follow both the Subcontracting and Joint Ventures by Foreign and Malawian Construction Firms Order of 2014 as well as The Practice of Construction Consultancy Services by Foreign Consulting Firms Regulations of 2004.

“In line with the Presidential Directive on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Order (MSMEs) and the Joint Ventures and Subcontracting Regulations in Construction, NCIC wishes to advise all foreign firms operating or intending to operate in the construction industry in Malawi to ensure compliance to both the Order and Regulations.

“Any foreign firm that is found to be operating contrary to the provisions of the Order or the Regulations stated herein risks disciplinary sanctions which may result in the revocation of its license,” said Khonje stressing the importance of complying with the Order or Regulations before commencement of any construction works or activities.

The National Construction Industry (NCI) Act mandates NCIC to promote and develop the construction industry in the country by giving priority to the general public in a bid to ensure that both foreign and Malawian firms benefit from the industry

Khonje explained that the two documents require local contractors involved in joint ventures to shoulder a minimum of 30 percent of the works by volume and value while local consultants must undertake a minimum of 51 percent of the services agreement.

NCIC further warned Malawian firms against entering into fraudulent agreements aimed at circumventing the provisions of the Order or Regulations, saying such conduct amount to offenses that attract disciplinary actions, which may result in the suspension or revocation of their licenses.

Khonje appealed to firms that have not yet complied with the two documents to do so immediately to avoid delays and disruption of their various works or activities.

NCIC has launched a five-year fraud and corruption prevention policy to create a corrupt-free working environment within the Council as well as the entire construction industry.

The policy focuses on fraud and corruption prevention as much as it also looks at internal systems control.

In the fraud and corruption prevention area, the policy emphasizes on development and implementation of effective fraud and corruption detection and correction systems. While in internal systems control, the policy spearheads adherence and enforcement of other policies including registration procedures, financial policies and procedures, codes of conduct, staff terms and conditions of service, evaluation and monitoring and; enforcement procedures.

In an attempt to regulate and reduce inefficiencies in the energy sector, the Malawi Government has revealed plans to develop a Renewable Energy Act. The Act will also go a long way in creating a fertile ground for the participation of Independence Power Producers (IPPs) in the sector.

The current IPP Framework need some improvements to set an enabling environment for various actors in the sector, President Lazarus Chakwera told the gathering in Salima when he inaugurated the 60MW JCM Power plant, the first IPPs solar project to be connected to the national grid.

Chakwera added that the Act will also address red tape and other weak governance systems to guarantee private investment security in the sector.

“For serious developers like JCM Power, who have sourced financing support from the Dutch Development Bank and InfraCo Africa Limited, as well as a liquidity guarantee from the African Trade Insurance Agency, Malawi cannot afford to have governance systems that take eight years for a project like this to move from conception to completion,” he said.

Dismayed by the red tape in government, Chakwera noted that the decision to unbundle the concentration of energy functions in the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) and create separate institutions in order to make the power market more efficient, left behind loose administrative processes that were not responsive to investors.

“More needs to be done to make the administrative processes within these new entities less susceptible to political interference and human error. In short, more needs to be done to make the administrative processes within these entities faster,” he said.

Following the unbundling of ESCOM, Energy Generation Company (EGENCO) took over the responsibility of generating power, ESCOM retained the responsibility for power distribution while Power Market Limited assumed the responsibility of purchasing power,

Chakwera further called on the Ministry of Energy to be professional in handling prospective investors in the energy market so that the country can meet the target of 1000MW in the next four years.

He further advised investors who secured Power Purchase Agreements but had not started implementing their projects to pull up their socks or face consequences. “Malawians have no patience for pretenders. We want serious people like JCM has shown themselves to be,” he said.

The President commended JMC Power for promoting a green future, which fits with the country’s desire for clean energy sources.

He said despite Malawi not being one of carbon emitters, there is a need to embark on more clean energy sources understanding that the country is not spared from negative impacts of climate change as a result of the emissions of nations in the global north.

Recently, Chakwera attended the Climate Conference in Scotland where he witnessed the launch of the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, whose aim is to promote universal access to clean and affordable energy.

According to Chakwera, the JCM solar power plant is a potent symbol of the country’s commitment to that agenda, a commitment to building a new Malawi of access to clean and affordable energy.

Recently, UN Secretary General Dr António Guterres warned the Glasgow Climate Conference that “addiction to fossil fuels is pushing humanity to the brink”.

The warning comes as the world reawakens to the realization that uncontrolled use of fossil fuels emits human and environmental damaging carbons that causes global warming.

Southern Africa including Malawi has been more vulnerable to experiences of global warming’s extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts and heavy flood-causing rainfall.

A recent study in Malawi on the effects of Cyclone Idai in 2017 titled “An Aftermath of a Disaster” by British based climate justice media research firm, Whales that Fly and Malawi’s Hyphen Media Institute shows that global warming not only destroyed the livelihoods of affected Malawians  but also ruined the country’s most relied upon social and economic sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, forestry, energy and went on to overstretch the education and health systems leading to deaths, injuries and displacements of thousands of people.

Africa Centre for Strategic Studies observes that the incidence of natural disasters in Sub-Saharan Africa has increased at a faster pace than the rest of the world. Compared to the 1970s, the frequency of droughts has nearly tripled, storms have quadrupled, and floods increased tenfold.

 “Either we stop it, or it stops us,” challenged Guterres.

While African countries are only responsible for about 4 percent of all carbon emissions, the Paris Climate Conference held six years ago agreed to reduce 45 percent of emissions by 2030 if global warming is to go just 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.

Hyphen Media Institute Board Chairperson, Eldson Chagara, says for the world to achieve the 1.5 °C mark there is need to move away from fossil fuel such as oil and gas to renewables like solar and wind energies.

“Switching to renewable energies opens the country to many other economic opportunities such as expanding its manufacturing base by creating value addition options for minerals for making solar or wind panels as well as manufacturing batteries for the solar panels, wind turbines, smartphones, and laptops,” he says.

“These resources if properly planned for and utilized with sustainable community and environmental centred principles could transform the country’s social and economic landscape,” says Chagara.

Malawian geological and mineral expert, Grain Malunga, has responded saying the country can grow its economy by taking advantage of the Glasgow Climate Conference agreement to reduce carbon emissions.

He says Malawi must start strategizing on how to sustainably produce and add value to locally available mineral resources that can be used to produce renewable energy technologies.

The COP26 climate conference is urging nations to transit from fossil fuels to renewable energies.

Malunga notes that Malawi is endowed with silica sand, iron ore, rare earths, uranium and graphite deposits that can be used in the manufacturing of solar panels. He says the country also has significant deposits of cobalt, lithium and rare earth minerals which can be used to produce renewable energy technologies.

“We must position ourselves to be able to participate in the manufacturing of some renewable energy technologies as well as the exportation of raw materials for the technologies,” says Malunga adding that government should also start thinking of training Malawian technicians and engineers who can harness energy from the country’s uranium and bauxite deposits.

Edgar Bayani, Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer at Community Energy Malawi reiterates saying that Malawi is resourcefully well positioned to make significant contributions to the production of renewable energies

“Malawi has rich renewable generation potential in hydropower, solar, wind and biomass, which, if well utilized, could produce a wide range of cheap and reliable power systems, ” he says

Meanwhile, SADC chairperson and president of Malawi, Lazarous Chakwera calls on developed countries, as prime polluters of the earth, to commit to financing climate change mitigating and adaptation measures by poor countries.

“This is what the people in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi are asking after burying the relatives they lost during Cyclone Idai,” Chakwera said when addressing fellow leaders.