The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) has asked Malawian producers to ensure they produce quality products to penetrate the bloc’s huge market with a population of more than 450 million people.
The 19-member economic bloc has a gross domestic product (GDP) of $20 billion, but the secretary general Sindiso Ngwenya recently indicated they want to have it increased to $50 million by 2015, subject to embracing of new technologies.
Speaking in Blantyre on Friday in Blantyre, Katherine Ichoya, chief executive officer of Federation of National Associations of Women in Business in Eastern and Southern Africa (Femcom), an offshoot of Comesa, said there are opportunities for producers in the market.
“When we talk about regional integration and exporting in Comesa that is what we are saying. That is real, the market is huge and it’s happening,” she said, at a presentation of certificate to members of the Tailors Association of Malawi who underwent a month-long training.
Ichoya repeated what has been said before that Malawi is a rich country, but that what is lacking is information, skills and access to credit.
She said Malawians have to take advantage of the resources that the country has and turn them into finished products to easily penetrate the market.
Ichoya said Comesa has engaged an extra gear to promote small and medium enterprises through the promotion of clusters such as garments and textiles and leather and leather products.
The training follows a study conducted by consultant, Cosmas Chigwe, who is also a lecturer at University of Malawi’s The Polytechnic that profiled SMEs in the textile and clothing sector undertaken between June and July 2012.
The study revealed that Malawi has one significant spinning factory, Mapeto (DWSM) Limited which is engaged in the whole value cotton value chain: spinning, weaving, dying and printing.
“Its annual production capacity is over 35 million metres, but has been scaled down to 20 million metres due to economic challenges such as foreign exchange scarcity being faced by the nation,” reads the study in part.
The study also found out that on the clothing industry, it is a mixed bag composed of large exporting manufacturers and smaller firms producing for the local market.
“The large firms operate in export processing zones, which exempt them from taxes and import duties on equipment, but require all output to be exported.
One of the trainers, Musonda Mitchel, who owns Swift Sew Tailoring School in Blantyre, said the training was aimed at equipping the tailors with skills to ensure production of quality materials.
