Dowa District Council eyes more revenue generation

Dowa District Council economic committee chairperson Martin Luka Phiri says there is need to embark on income-generating activities to improve service delivery.

In an interview on Monday after a full council meeting, Luka said it is high time the council treated  income-generating activities as a priority.

Said Phiri: “During the previous financial year, we made a budget of over K300 million, but we generated K147 million.

“We have learned that one of the contributing factors is that we have not yet opened commercial ventures to boost revenue generation capacity.”

He said currently, the council has three potential commercial ventures, namely Dowa Boma Lodge, a bottle store and rooms at Mponela and a rest-house and bar at Madisi.

“But we want these two at Dowa Boma and Mponela to be opened as soon as possible to improve revenue generating,” said Phiri.

Dowa District Council works and service committee chairperson Billy Mtika also emphasised on the need to renovate institution houses, saying they would be vandalised if not attended to.

“Renovating these houses could contribute towards revenue generation through rentals,” he said.

Dowa district commissioner Alex Mdooko said economic ventures were a good option to raise funds for the council.

“We have these projects we want to implement. But I urge everyone to refrain from abuse once they are running,” he said.