Malawi holds key to energy grant future
Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) deputy vice-president Andrew Mayock said on Monday Malawi holds the key to the future of the K56 billion ($350 million) compact programme to upgrade electricity generation and distribution in the country.
Speaking during a tele-conference from Washington DC, Mayock stressed that since there were a number of actions inconsistent with MCC standards, Malawi needs to review several of its actions to convince the MCC Board between now and June that it has addressed concerns raised and avoid a complete termination.
“It is all up to the Malawi Government to address the concerns raised and restore confidence with the MCC. We implore the Government of Malawi to move forward… It took a number of actions to suspend the programme and it will take a number of actions to reinstate it,†he said.
One of the MCC Board’s concerns leading to the suspension was the visit last year of Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir who is again scheduled to come into the country in June when Malawi hosts the African Union Summit.
But Mayock, who oversees MCC programmes in East and Southern Africa, said even if Malawi make steps to bar al-Bashir from coming into the country that will still not mean automatic return to the compact programme.
He said what is key to Malawi is to look at all the issues raised, including recent arrests and detention of politicians and human rights activists, enacting of laws against the media, the July 20 2011 incident where about 20 unarmed civilians were killed by police, among several others.
The US Government last Thursday announced suspension of the MCC Compact programme with Malawi, citing several issues of concern such as the visit by al-Bashir, arrests of opposition leaders and human rights activists, inflammatory rhetoric from senior government officials and failure by Lilongwe to put in place economic policies that would see revival of the Extended Credit Facility programme with the International Monetary Fund.
The MCC was planning to invest almost $350 million in the country’s power sector to improve the ever erratic power supply.
According to MCC, the funding would have also provided close to $2 billion (K380 billion) in net income benefits to nearly six million Malawians.
US Embassy Charge d’Affaires Lisa Vickers said it is her mission’s hope that Malawi will make the right decisions and right steps forward.
According to Vickers, despite the stand-off on the MCC, the US government will continue to help the country in various programmes which in 2011 registered a total of almost $223 million which is a sharp rise from a total of $110 million registered in 2009.
The USA government helps Malawi in health mainly in the fight against malaria, maternal and child health; agriculture; economic growth and education among several other areas.
