National Oil Company of Malawi (Nocma) Limited has confirmed an investigation into a “fraudulent correspondence” worth $403 605 (about K700 million) intended for one of its service providers, Mozhandling Limited.
In a statement yesterday, Nocma said the payment, made on April 29 2026 to a Bank of America account, related to the handling of petroleum products through the Indian Ocean port of Nacala in Mozambique for the period August 13 2025 to January 2026.
The statement said that following an initial payment to Mozhandling Limited, Nocma received a series of e-mail communications from a Miss Patricia Maria following up on the outstanding payment on behalf of Mozhandling.
Nocma further said that in March 2026, it received another communication purporting to be from Maria, advising that Mozhandling’s banking arrangements had changed. Thus, she reportedly provided new account details at Bank of America, which was followed by a letter purportedly issued by the bank confirming the account.
States Nocma: “On the basis of this information and documentation, Nocma instructed its bankers, National Bank of Malawi, to process the payment. The payment of $403 605 was effected on 29 April 2026.
“Approximately two weeks later, Ms. Maria contacted Nocma again to follow up on the same outstanding payment. Nocma informed her that the payment had already been made.”
Nocma said it reported the incident to Malawi Police Service and that an investigation is underway.
Reacting to the Nocma account, Human Rights Defenders Coalition chairperson Michael Kaiyatsa said while Nocma’s statement is a welcome step towards transparency, it also raises serious questions about the adequacy of its internal controls.
He said the key issue is not only that fraud may have occurred, but how a payment of such a huge amount of money could be redirected through a change of banking details without being detected before the money left Nocma.
Centre for Social Transparency and Accountability executive director Willy Kambwandira said the fraudulent payment is deeply troubling and a serious indictment of the financial controls at Nocma.
“A change of banking details for a payment of this magnitude should never be acted upon solely through email without rigorous independent verification and senior level authorization,”he said.
Following the government’s decision in November 2024 to transition from the Open Tender System to Government-to-Government (G2G) fuel procurement, Nocma was designated to play a central role in the importation of petroleum products.
But Nocma argues that the arrangement introduced new contractual, financial, shipping and clearing processes involving multiple international suppliers and service providers before these procedures had been fully developed and institutionalised.
In 2023, Malawi Government said it had recovered $543 750 (about K563 million) that was frozen in a Germany bank as payment for the botched K750 million Affordable Inputs Programme deal.
