Mutharika pushes for more aid

President Peter Mutharika has said out of the 32 percent of official aid European institutions are providing to Africa, Malawi only gets about two percent.

The President was speaking yesterday when he delivered a keynote address at the European Development Days (EDD) event in Brussels, Belgium.

Mutharika said just like all African countries, Malawi needs better aid, which can support the continent’s trade and sustainable development.

“The sub-Saharan Africa where I come from receives about $134 billion each year in loans and development aid.

“But that $192 billion is taken out from the region back to our well-wishers through tax evasion, climate change mitigation, and the flight of profits. This is unacceptable,” he said.

According to Mutharika, Africa is not a poor continent, but all it needs is skilled labour force to turn its assets into capital.

Said Mutharika: “I want to address the question of investing in the human capital. I want to address the situation of the youth in Africa and the rest of the developing world. The case of Africa is very telling.”

He explained that although people from the continent are mostly poor, Africa has a lot of resources, adding that part of African poverty is created by global structural imbalances which needs to be corrected.

In an interview on Sunday, State House director of communications Bright Molande described the President’s engagements as critical roles.

He said from the trip, Mutharika is expected to bring home 185 million euro (around K150 billion) from the three financial agreements which are 100 million euro for Kulima Project, 70 million euro for nutrition and 15 million euro for supporting the National Authorising Office at the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development.