Major religious umbrella bodies have expressed surprise with presidential adviser on religious affairs the Reverend Brian Kamwendo’s sentiments that about 5 300 clerics have accessed K8.3 billion loans from National Economic Empowerment Fund (Neef).
Kamwendo made the statement during a national service of worship on July 5 as part of the 61st independence anniversary celebrations in Lilongwe on Saturday.
But Malawi Conference of Catholic Bishops (MCCB), Malawi Council of Churches (MCC) and Muslim Association of Malawi (MAM) said yesterday that none of their members has reported getting the said loans. The bodies also said they were not approached by authorities on the same.
that they don’t know. | Nation
MCCB general secretary Valeriano Mtseka in an interview yesterday said he was not aware of any cleric affiliated to his religious body having benefitted from the arrangement.
“I don’t know of any [Catholic] priest or bishop who has benefitted from this loan,” he said in a WhatsApp text response.
In a separate interview, MCC board chairperson the Reverend Billy Gama, whose organisation is a consortium of 21 Christian denominations, expressed surprise with Kamwendo’s statement that 5 300 clerics have so far benefitted from Neef loans.
He said as MCC chairperson, his office was procedurally supposed to be informed about the purported Neef loans to the clergy.
Said Gama: “Actually, I was right there at the prayers and I was shocked when I heard that statement because to the best of my knowledge, no one [affiliated to MCC] has benefitted from the said loans.
“I was even tempted to ask Brian ‘who are the people who have benefited?’ It can be a political statement. But I just let it go.”
On his part, MAM publicity secretary Sheikh Dinala Chabulika said following Kamwendo’s statement, the association moved to establish whether some of its members were among the beneficiaries.
“We have found zero. Write [the story] and tell them [government] that we [MAM] haven’t found anyone [who has received Neef loan],” he said.
In an interview last evening, Kamwendo said he was not surprised that some major religious bodies were not aware that some of their clerics have benefitted from K8.3 billion Neef loans.
He said the loans beneficiaries were “fraternal clerics”, as such, it was justifiable that the clerics’ mother bodies have no details.
“We started with the fraternal because this was just a pilot phase with an expectation that we will later engage the mother bodies. So, it is not strange that they don’t know who have benefitted,” said Kamwendo.
Neef credit manager Whyghtone Mweta, in a separate interview, said the 5 300 clerics were drawn from the country’s religious denominations after they formed groups and accessed the loans under Faith Leaders Empowerment Scheme.
“They [clerics] are into the whole spectrum of businesses, some are running grocery shops; some are into farming, while others are Airtel Money agents. So we treat them as any eligible Malawian who can benefit from Neef loans,” he said.
The developments come after Neef on June 26 2025 dismissed reports that it had disbursed about K5.8 billion to 11 pastors under a purported Presidential Initiative on Sustainable Community Empowerment.
Earlier this year, Neef, an economic empowerment initiative meant to finance start-ups and boost existing small and medium businesses through a revolving fund, said it targeted to disburse K150 billion to 400 000 farmers and entrepreneurs by March this year.
Since its rebranding in 2020, Neef had by January 2025 disbursed K184 billion, benefitting over 200 000 people nationwide.
