Gems amid unpolished stones
May 21 to 31 2015 was the Malawi International Trade Fair (Mitf) week. It was a week of inspiring revelations to me on the potential that awaits ignition in the micro and medium enterprises space in Malawi.
However, until such ignition happens, those opportunities and the inherent potential will remain but just that. Someone said “nobody eats potential”. It is only worth when it is converted into tangibles that potential becomes a narrative worthy of any discourse.
In 2015, circumstances dictated that I took time to visit the Mitf stands on the eve of the official opening. I happened to be working from there and I took time to visit the makeshift micro and medium enterprises stands within the main pavilion.
That turned out to be a rare opportunity into some inspiring insights. I came across three inspiring encounters with the creative juices of Malawian entrepreneurship. I am excited to share the insights into the wealthy initiatives of some great country folks. The type that refuses to sit on their laurels wondering what their government will do for them but are doing things for their nation. I take a bow to them.
The Mitf has been around from the days of my junior high school. In those days of youthful exuberance mingled with naïve innocence, we used to marvel at going to the fair because it was both a novelty mingled with the fact that it had hefty substance. One was sure to see an exciting showcase of how Malawian manufacturers made their products. That was before the Malawian manufacturing establishment was dismantled.
When we had the likes of PEW (Plumbing and Engineering Works), Brown and Clapperton (B & C), heavy weight employer and manufacturer called David Whitehead and Sons, Mulanje Canning Factory, Cheesebrough Ponds, Gramil, Press Bakeries, Noil (National Oil Industries Limited), Lipton Tea, Nzeru Radio, the once mighty Lever Brothers and many more luminaries of industry of yesteryears.
Sadly, a few manufacturers of that era are still standing with the likes of Candlex, Universal Industries and the giants like Illovo Sugar (Malawi) Limited, formerly Sugar Corporation of Malawi (Sucoma), Carlsberg Malawi et al. The fact is they are too few to write home about.
In the late 1990s and early 2000 we buried most manufacturing firms, one after another for reasons too numerous to enumerate. There was even a comic cartoon of a leader in a cemetery laying a wreath on yet another fallen giant of industry. Suffice to say that if we were only better organised with a robust and visionary leadership, we could have avoided this Jurassic park of Malawian industry.
So fast forward some years, as a result of a depleted manufacturing sector, we went into a season of disgrace where the whole trade fair was turned into something akin to a flea market. A teen-time partying arena where every stand was in a race to outdo their neighbours in blasting the loudest music. It was a disgrace of embarrassing proportions.
This year gave a semblance of a slow but sure trajectory to recovery. I came across beautifully crafted shoes, which I mistook to be from Zimbabwe, only to learn that they were made right within the fair grounds by Bantu Arts and Crafts led by a modest looking Edward Malunga; trained at Comboni in Lunzu, Kenya, Ethiopia and then China. His shoes are amazing. I bought some right away.
His products are highly rated even in Zimbabwe, which has a great shoe-making pedigree. I was delighted that President Peter Mutharika and his vice Saulos Chilima visited and encouraged him.
Next stop was the One Village One Product (Ovop) stand. I was astounded by the perfect quality of the products on display with the highest quality packaging anyone can demand.
As a marketer of many seasons, I was even more impressed by the creativity of turning such things like masau from my home, Monkey Bay, into delicious tasting jam. Awesome.
Then I came across Sunseed Oil who are making oil from sunflower. This was reminiscent of the days I once worked for a multinational that had a brilliant oil production project from sunflower. Had it succeeded, sunflower growing would have relegated tobacco to the shadows. For some reasons, the project was abandoned. One prays that Sunseed will get it right and is here to stay.
My appeal to the authorities is that these are the type of investors or innovators needing tax holidays and all creative incentives we can give. Not giving tax incentives to second-hand car dealers from the Far East that I hear want tax breaks, when all the traditional motor dealers have and are paying taxes. That would be insane and counter-productive because much as they are cheap and we all stand to benefit, second-hand cars never develop a country. They just drain foreign exchange and pollute the environment.
