Govt for more AfDB support
Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Simplex Chithyola Banda says Malawi will utilise the African Development Bank (AfDB) annual meetings in Nairobi, Kenya, to push for increased development funding and climate financing to accelerate socio-economic growth.
AfDB started holding its annual meetings yesterday and the minister, who is one of the governors of the bank by virtue of being Finance Minister, is attending to discuss issues affecting Africa and how best the continent can accelerate socio-economic transformation.
Speaking in an interview yesterday, Chithyola Banda said Malawi will push for increased funding to support the economy’s production sectors, adding that the country wants more support towards agriculture, tourism, mining (ATM) and energy.
He said: “We are expecting that the AfDB will continue supporting Malawi? but also increase the allocation of funding. As you are aware, we still have a lot of issues that require financial attention.
“We are also expecting that they will also focus on providing technical support, but also build our capacity in areas of energy, water and sanitation and agriculture.”
Chithyola Banda said the meeting will provide an opportunity to widen and improve networking among the member States in the AfDB.
He said Malawi and other countries will push for climate financing to help address issues of natural disasters.
“I will also be meeting the president of the African Development Bank and the top leadership to present our case. Malawi has perpetually been hit by natural disasters. There are also many other issues that if we can make a good presentation to the African Development Bank, we might have some projects being supported,” said Chithyola Banda.
Just last week, the bank released $23 million (about K40 billion) budget support towards the agriculture sector.
Secretary to Treasury Betchani Tchereni said in an interview that Malawi is disadvantaged on the level of funding because of its low gross domestic product (GDP).
He said there is need to have flexible conditions to enable countries with low GDP access more funding to support developmental projects and improve the lives of people.
This year’s AfDB annual meetings are aimed at promoting Africa’s socio-economic transformation.
Currently, Africa is offtrack in terms of achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
According to AfDB, for Africa to achieve the United Nations backed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it needs about $1.3 trillion a year, which is equivalent to 42 percent of the continent’s GDP for 2023.
