Residents in the country’s four cities should brace for more bumpy rides as city councils are facing a K122.2 billion funding deficit for road maintenance.
In the 2025-26 National Budget which rolled out on April 1, Parliament allocated a collective K35 billion to Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Zomba cities against a requirement of K157.2 billion.
Blantyre City Council proposed a K67 billion budget for road maintenance, Lilongwe City Council submitted a K53 billion budget while Mzuzu needs K30 billion and Zomba K7.2 billion to fix all the damaged roads.
Blantyre | Nation
In a written response, Blantyre City chief executive officer Denis Chinseu said in the 2024/25 financial year that ended on March 31 2021, out of K20.1 billion allocated for roads construction in the four cities, the commercial city was allocated K4.6 billion.
But he could not disclose how much his council actually received and how the funds were used, saying: “It [the funding] comes based on the certificate of completed works that we submit to Treasury. Basically, we will continue lobbying the Treasury [for increased funding].”
Lilongwe City spokesperson Tamara Chafunya said out of the K20.1 billion allocated for roads in the capital city, the council received about K6 billion.
She stressed the need to increase the city roads construction funding because the lifespan for most of the roads expired.
“We were allocated a further K2 billion for road maintenance, but we would need much more because a number of roads have over-lived their lifespan and require redoing,” said Chafunya.
In a separate interview, Mzuzu City spokesperson McDonald Gondwe said government allocated K3 billion in the 2024/25 financial year for road maintenance, but received K2.9 billion.
“We used about K2.5billion, but we need about K30 billion to fix most of the roads in the city,” he said.
On the other hand, Zomba City CEO Archangel Bakolo said government allocated about K2.5 billion in the just-ended financial year and they received the whole amount for roads construction.
He said to fix all the damaged roads in the old capital, the council needs about K7.2 billion.
In 2022, Roads Fund Administration indicated that it spent over K60 billion since 2016/2017 on roads project in the country’s four cities.
Malawi has a road network spanning 15 500 kilometres (km) of which 4 500 km is tarmac.
