Parliament on Friday adopted President Peter Muthar ika’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) delivered on February 13 2026 to mark the official opening of the 2026/27 Budget Meeting.
The adoption followed two weeks of debate from both sides of the House. While opposition parties expressed reservations about the address, government members supported it.
Contributing to the debate before adoption, Blantyre City Soche Zingwangwa legi slator Fred Penjani Kalua (UTM Party) called on government to engage both local and international companies to help tackle youth unemployment.
employment opportunities. | Nation
He appealed to authorities to establish deliberate partnerships aimed at empowering young people through digital content creation.
Kalua said with many Malawian youths already produci ng content on platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, formalising and supporting the creative digital industry would create employment while also generating foreign
exchange.
He said: “If you check how much content creators make in Zambia and Tanzania, some earn between $2 000 and $3 000 on average.
” If we monet i se the creative industry, we will achieve foreign exchange
generation and ease pressure on commercial banks. It will also create business and employment opportunities for this generation.”
Moving the motion to adopt the Sona, Mulanje South legislator Booker Matemvu (independent) expressed hope that the country’s numerous challenges would be addressed.
He highlighted food security and improved access to education as key priorities.
Matemv u said food security rests on four pillars: availability, accessibility, affordability, and stability of supply.
“The previous government may have produced food but kept it in warehouses, affecting accessibility and affordability,” he said.
Meanwhile, from today MPs go into cluster committees to scrutinise allocations in the proposed 2026/27 National Budget Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Decentralisation Joseph Mwanamvekha tabled in Parliament on Friday.
The House is expected to reconvene on March 16.
