When State House announced that President Lazarus Chakwera would address the nation last evening, barely 24 hours after returning from a government-to-government fuel deal with United Arab Emirates (UAE) , expectations were for finer details.
But, as it turned out, the President’s televised national address delivered from Mzuzu State Lodge was a mixed bag that dwelt on relief food distribution progress, brief update on the fuel deal and appointment of Malawi Congress Party politician Engineer Vitumbiko Mumba as Minister of Labour replacing Agnes NyaLonje, a UTM Party member, who resigned at the weekend.
In the address monitored on MBC television, Chakwera also hailed Malawians who turned out to register as voters and commended Malawi Electoral Commission for “a smooth” registration process.
The President, who two weeks ago hinted that United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan had invited him to Abu Dhabi to discuss the government-to-government procurement system as opposed to open tendering, said he had fruitful deliberations.
He said: “The UAE President will be sending a team here next month [January 2025] to finalise the technical aspects of the arrangement, which I will update you on during my State of the Nation Address [in Parliament] in February.
“What is most important now as we manage these four crises of food, fertiliser, fuel and forex is to make sure that we exercise discipline in the usage of the limited resources we have.”
On Tuesday last week, Parliament passed the Liquid Fuels and Gas (Production and Supply) Act (Amendment) Bill to facilitate the transition from open tender to government-to-government procurement amid reservations from opposition legislators.
The new law gives the Minister of Energy the power to nominate an agent or State entity to import fuel without the oversight prescribed in the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets (PPDA) Act of 2017.
The President is on record as having said that the current open tendering process of procuring fuel is not suited for Malawi because of the country’s inability to generate the foreign currency needed for National Oil Company of Malawi and Petroleum Importers Limited to pay international private sector suppliers.
In an earlier interview, Minister of Energy Ibrahim Matola said the system should be fully operational by March 2025, but indicated that in the meantime, the Malawi Government was negotiating an emergency arrangement to cover the intervening period.
Commenting for the first time on NyaLonje’s resignation, the President said he was reluctant to accept it, but respected her decision and thanked her for the service to the nation.
He said he expected Mumba, who vied for the MCP first deputy president post and lost to Speaker of Parliament Catherine Gotani Hara, to sustain his predecessor’s momentum in creating more jobs, including labour exports to Israel, the UAE and other markets.
In an interview last evening, Mumba said he felt overwhelmed and honoured to serve the country in that capacity.
He said: “I don’t take the trust and confidence that the President has in me for granted. I will not let him and Malawains down.”
Earlier in his address, the President also provided an update on the maize distribution to about 1.2 million families that were yet to receive support, out of the 5.7 million people requiring relief during the lean period as per the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee report.
According to Chakwera, the World Food Programme has also received support from various governments totalling $32.42 million. Such governments include Sweden and Netherlands, United States, United Kingdom, Japan and France.
Malawi is reeling under a food crisis worsened by weather-induced disasters that reduced harvest and fuel shortage attributed to low foreign exchange reserves due to dwindling export earnings.
Malawi needs $600 million annually to bring in fuel, but generates just around $1 billion in forex every year. In total, the country needs $3 billion to meet its import requirements.
