NBM LLM sponsorship to enhance doing business
Malawi has, over the years, not been performing well on the World Bank Ease of Doing Business reports, with its ranking being dismal.
For example, after slumping 10 steps in the previous report, Malawi dropped by one step to 164 out of 189 economies in the 2015 ease of doing business report, in 10 indicators.
The ranking is 28 places from being the worst place to do business in the world, a dent on the country’s ability to attract potential investors.
However, the drop in the ranking does not necessarily mean that Malawi has not initiated reforms, but that other countries are reforming faster.
National Bank of Malawi (NBM), a Malawi Stock Exchange (MSE) listed financial institution, decided to do something to help the country move up the ladder in the ranking.
The bank, in a public private partnership (PPP) model, sponsored a masters of law (LLM) in commercial law at University of Malawi’s (Unima) Chancellor College, which was launched in 2009 and whose first cohort graduated and were awarded on Friday in Blantyre.
“We [at NBM] noted that year in year out, the World Bank Doing Business Report found that access to commercial justice was a major impediment, which ranked highly in the ease of doing business,” said NBM chief executive officer George Partridge at a celebratory dinner.
“The bank decided to do something about this, it being a major player affected by such an environment. Although the job of making a conducive environment for businesses to flourish is primarily that of government, we thought of participating.”
Unima vice-chancellor Professor John Saka said the programme was initiated after studies showed that Malawi requires human capital on commercial law to support growing “massive investments”.
“This need was also espoused in the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy II whose key goal of economic growth is patently related to the facilitation of commercial activities,” he said.
Saka said the programme has built human capital that has expertise to competently handle emerging challenges in areas such as banking, insurance, credit and securities, international trade, intellectual property, taxation and corporate management.
He said Malawi being a key player in Free Trade Areas (FTAs) such as Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), international trade agreements and its membership of World Trade Organisation (WTO), will utilise the knowledge and skills in handling trade negotiations and disputes.
The graduating students are George Bakuwa, Chipiliro Kauka, Wapona Kita, Felix Mipande, Masauko Msungama, Ted Roka, Louis Ulaya, Kalekeni Kaphale (Attorney General), James Masumbu and Ambokire Salimu.
