Malawi’s emerging gold industry is beginning to reshape the country’s export profile, with the mineral accounting for more than a third of export earnings in recent months, it has emerged.
Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI) has said this underscores gold’s potential to diversify the economy and reduce reliance on traditional agricultural commodities.
Data from the National Statistical Office International Merchandise Trade Statistical Report show that gold contributed 30 percent of total exports in July and 35 percent in August 2026, generating $43 million (about K75.2 billion) and $53.4 million (about K93.5 billion), respectively.
Reads part of the NSO report: “Top 10 export commodities amounted to $139.8 million. The three key export commodities were tobacco valued at $59.2 million, representing 38.6 percent followed by gold at $53.4 million, representing 34.9 percent and pulses at $11.8 million or 7.7 percent.”
away from tobacco. | Nation
MCCCI president Ronald Ngwira, in an interview on Tuesday, described the gold exports as critical to diversify exports away from tobacco, but called for proper regulations to ensure the country taps from the existing opportunity.
“It is very critical and it’s important that Reserve Bank of Malawi [RBM] is now in the forefront and central in the space. Unfortunately it is coming at a huge environmental cost in terms of landscape degradation and river bank destruction. Station of rivers and a massive health cost.”
While noting that the country is using mercury which is dangerous and banned in most of the world, Ngwira said that the country could benefit more from gold exports if the sector is well regulated.
“The nation needs to benefit and so RBM has demonstrated bringing it back into the formal space, but one needs to understand at what cost we are paying,” he said.
In a separate interview, international trade expertsPaul Kwengwere described the sharp uptick in gold’s export share—reaching 30 to 35 percent in recent months as a demonstration of its potential as a macro-stabilising asset.
He said unlike most agricultural products such as tobacco that operates on a strict, seasonal auction window, gold operates year-round, offering consistent revenues to smooth foreign exchange inflows.
Said Kwengwere: “To translate short-term gold export spikes into sustained foreign exchange liquidity and fiscal stability, Malawi must move from ad-hoc trade capture to a structured formalisation framework.
“Currently, the primary reason gold escapes formal channels is due to uncompetitive local buying prices relative to illegal cross-border traders.”
Malawi Mining Company (Mamico) chief executive officer Leonard Kalindekafe said the emerging statistics demonstrate the real potential of gold as a short-term foreign exchange pillar, but the key obstacle remains that most of Malawi’s gold does not flow into formal channels.
He said: “The $700 million [about K1.2 trillion] smuggling estimates itself indicates that the true production and circulation data of gold are severely missing.
“Without resolving smuggling and the trust issue of artisanal miners, any export diversification strategy will be built on sand.”
On smuggling, Kalindekafe lamented that significant share of Malawi’s gold is believed to leave the country through informal channels, depriving the nation of foreign exchange, government of tax and royalty revenue, and artisanal and small-scale miners of access to formal markets.
Mamico is establishing structured gold trading markets at its office in Lilongwe and in partnership with FDH Bank plc through designated gold trading centres across the country.
Mamico records show that the State-owned firm has supported the formalisation of nine gold cooperatives across Mzimba, Kasungu, Lilongwe, Dwangwa, Mangochi, Zomba, Chiradzulu, Nsanje and Machinga.
Mining contributes roughly one percent to the country’s gross domestic product, according to the 2026 Malawi Government Annual Economic Report.
