Chakwera fires Lowe, hints at Cabinet reshuffle

Revelations of the K750 million botched fertiliser deal have irked President Lazarus Chakwera who has dismissed minister of Agriculture Lobin Lowe and his deputy Madalitso Kambauwa Wirima for what he termed incompetence.

Delivering a national address on the status of Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP), a visibly charged Chakwera conceded that government had lost $725 000 (about K750 million) in the botched AIP fertiliser supply deal involving a United Kingdom-based company, but said government is working to recover the full amount through the office of the Attorney General.

“Fellow Malawians, I come before you to inform you that in exercise of the powers vested in me by Section 89 of the Constitution, I have relieved the Minister of Agriculture and his deputy of their posts in my Cabinet with immediate effect.

“There are serious problems in the agriculture sector that need to be fixed as a matter of urgency, in the face of which the food security of the country has been left in grave jeopardy.

“Even though there is still time to resolve the problems, there is simply no way this can be done by the same careless leadership that has failed to fulfil its mandate over the sector, a sector that is the backbone of our economy and the breadbasket of millions of Malawians.”

The President has since replaced Lowe, a Lilongwe Central member of Parliament (MP), with Dowa North East MP Sam Kawale who was Minister of Lands and was recently appointed chairperson of a Ministerial Task Force on AIP Implementation. On the other hand, Kambauwa Wirima, who is Kasungu North East MP, is yet to be replaced.

Chakwera described the fertiliser transaction as illegal as it flouted procurement procedures and hinted at further changes to his Cabinet.

He said: “Speaking of the Cabinet, I want to make it clear that I will be announcing other changes in due course. The time for keeping people as ministers without any contribution or difference they are making to my efforts to transform government to deliver better policies to Malawians has passed.

“The time for keeping people as ministers who allow incompetence, corruption and wastage to happen on their watch simply because people doing it are their friends or members of their party or alliance partners is passed.”

Chakwera said Malawians deserve results and they elected him to deliver those results.

The President, whose action comes barely days after Ministry of Agriculture dismissed assertions that K30 billion AIP funds had been misused, said the $725 000 was paid in two instalments between May and June this year.

“Our internal inquiries into the revealed a disturbing litany of bad decisions that smack of incompetence and gross negligence,” said Chakwera.

He also faulted the Ministry of Agriculture through, Smallholder Farmers Fertiliser Revolving Fund (SFFRFM), for doing business without due diligence.

But the President assured that despite the scam, government will deliver fertiliser as expected under this year’s AIP.

He said so far, government has secured at least 93 000 metric tonnes (MT) of NPK fertiliser and 62 000MT of Urea, part of which is already in the country.

Chakwera admitted the quantities were below the required tonnage for the programme, but said government will work to fix the deficit.

He also shared critics’ sentiments that the AIP is not sustainable and outlined seven points for reforming the AIP, including targeted identification of beneficiaries and ensure the graduation of farmers from the programme to avoid creating a state of “perpetual dependency”.

In the address, the President also wondered how SFFRFM had awarded contracts for the supply of fertiliser to the tune of K188 billion, almost double the budget allocation for AIP in the current National Budget which stands at K109 billion.

Reacting to the President’s address, Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture chairperson Sameer Suleman hailed Chakwera for the bold decision on Lowe, but said the information shared has gaps and there is need for clarity.

He said: “I hope the information the President has shared is credible and not from the same compromised individuals. But we stand ready to support the new minister who is a capable man.”

Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency executive director Wi l l ie Kambwandira described Chakwera’s position as an act of decisive leadership, especially on Lowe.

“He has shown leadership by firing Lobin Lowe…. The whole Ministry of Agriculture leadership must be fully investigated and sanctions given. The recovery process of the K750 million must be transparent.

Since its introduction in 2020, AIP has been rocked with implementation challenges that left a majority of the 3.6 million beneficiaries failing to access inputs.

During Chakwera’s crop inspection tours in March and April this year, especially in parts of the Southern and Eastern regions, it emerged that most Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation depots did not have AIP fertilisers in stock.

Fed up with outcries about poor implementation, the President, during a rally at Kuyenda Ground in Ntcheu District on April 11 this year, gave Lowe a September deadline to ensure all logistics were in place or risk being fired.

AIP is the Tonse Alliance initiative which succeeded the Farm Inputs Subsidy Programme (Fisp) implemented by DPP. The AIP quadrupled the number of beneficiaries from Fisp’s estimated 900 000 beneficiaries to about 3.7 million.