Amid sluggish economic growth and strained public finances, Malawi’s just-presented Mid-Year Budget Statement has sparked sharp criticism after revelations that the presidency has received some of the highest allocations in the revised fiscal plan.
State House is getting an extra K22.6 billion, pushing its total budget to K89 billion for the 2025/26 fiscal year.
This is a 34 percent increase from the initial K67 billion under the Malawi Congress Party-led government that Finance, Economic Planning and Decentralisation Minister Joseph Mwanamvekha claimed exhausted its State House allocation in six months.
The Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) also has an additional K7 billion or 18 percent more from K38 billion while the Vice-President Office’s allocation is expected to rise by K3 billion, from K8 billion to K11 billion, which is a 37.5 percent jump.
The health sector is getting a much lower jump than the presidency at K17 billion or nine percent from K191 billion to K208 billion to add resources for the purchase of drugs in both district and central hospitals.
The mid-year budget review has also seen wages and salaries increase by K98.5 billion or 6.4 percent from K1. 532 trillion to K1.630 trillion.
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The jump is supposed to cover recruitments in security institutions, education and health sectors, promotions of primary school teachers and honoraria increases for chiefs in the second quarter of the 2025/26 financial year.
Social benefits have been revised upwards by K325.6 billion from the approved provision of K286.3 billion to K611.9 billion, representing a 113.7 percent increase due to additional resources for pensions and gratuities aimed at reducing the waiting period for retirees to access their benefits.
The 2025/26 total approved development expenditure of K2 trillion has dropped to K1 926.2 billion on account of reduced disbursements from development partners.
The Farm Inputs Subsidy Programme (Fisp), despite consistent failures to curb hunger, secured an additional K112 billion or 86 percent more, bringing its total allocation to K241 billion.
In an interview, Mwanamvekha yesterday said the sharp jump has been necessitated by an increase in the number of beneficiaries.
He said the extra amount will cater for the purchase of fertiliser and other inputs on top of logistical arrangements.
Mwanamvekha said the previous administration had planned for fewer than one million beneficiaries while the current government will reach out to 1.1 million; hence, the dethroned Lazarus Chakwera administration’s K129 billion allocation.
Still on food availability, the National Food Reserve Agency has been allocated an additional K20 billion to buy maize and restock the strategic grain reserves.
But governance watchdog Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency (Csat) executive director Willy Kambwandira has criticised these adjustments, especially to the presidency and Fisp.
He said: “The extra allocations to State Residences and the chronically underperforming Fisp are a glaring indication of Malawi’s misplaced priorities.
“Throwing more money at State Residences reinforces perceptions of elite comfort being prioritised over public service while continued funding for a Fisp that repeatedly fails to deliver value amounts to pouring scarce resources into a leaking bucket.
“At a time when citizens are struggling with rising costs, weak services and poor food security, these budget choices signal a government more focused on political preservation than meaningful reform,” said Kambwandira.
University of Malawi economics lecturer Gowokani Chirwa said in an interview that the extra allocations are leaned more towards consumption than economic growth.
Chirwa said the allocations may only spur inflation instead of the much desired economic growth.
That view is shared by Mzuzu University economist Christopher Mbukwa who thinks that although the budget is largely pro-poor, priorities have leaned towards consumption rather than economic growth.
“Looking critically into the allocations, one would clearly see that there is none that would spur economic growth. Growth in the short run is spurred by allocations to the economic sectors and should go to programmes that will contribute to the production of goods and services. So you can see that allocations to State Residences and social sectors wouldn’t offer that growth in the short run. However, allocations have to be made anyway to maintain balance,” said Mbukwa.
