Wealth creation critical, say experts
Agricultural experts have warned that ordinary Malawians will continue wallowing in abject poverty unless members of Parliament (MPs) and other leaders at the grass roots level prioritise teaching people how to create their own wealth.
Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources chairperson Friday Jumbe and Civil Society Agriculture Network (CisaNet) national coordinator Tamani Nkhono-Mvula sounded the warning in separate interviews in Lilongwe on Wednesday.
The two were commenting on what has been roundly hailed as a creative, out-of-the-box use of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) by Kasungu North-East member of Parliament (MP) Elias Wakuda Kamanga (People’s Party–PP), who has invested K7 million (about $ 10 752) in fighting household poverty by boosting income-generating activities.
Traditionally, most MPs use the fund, to which the government allots the K7 million in all the 193 constituencies, for tangible infrastructural projects such as construction of school blocks, bridges or roads.
But late last year, Kamanga impressed his constituents and Kasungu District Council officials as when project proposals were being sought from stakeholders and were later being scrutinised by the area development committee (ADC).
Jumbe, MP for Salima Central (Malawi Congress Party–MCP), happily acknowledged that what Kamanga is doing is an attempt to help his constituents create wealth at household level, well beyond short-term benefit of riches.
The MP, a prominent farmer himself, said the CDF needs to be increased to a hefty sum of K500 million (about $ 768 035) per constituency for the parliamentarians and other development agents to facilitate substantive wealth creation across the country and also effects infrastructural development.
On his part, Nkhono-Mvula commended Kamanga for proving that investing in manpower
development is another way of utilising the CDF.
“What he is doing is investing in people, to help them change their mindset on how they look at things. This is the whole concept of sustainable development and it’s something that other MPs should emulate.
“In as much as infrastructural development is good, the most important way of development is to make sure that people are empowered economically, socially and in other aspects of life. These other things [tangible projects] are secondary,” he added.
While agreeing that the CDF is monetarily a small tool, he warned that waiting for the ideal huge financial boost to the fund, before tackling big projects, may be counter-productive for the nation.
Said Nkhono-Mvula: “If we invest in people by changing their mindsets and changing their outlook towards development, that will have a more lasting impact on the economy than some of the infrastructural projects the fund has been used for, so far. We need to inspire people to think progressively and let us start doing this with the little we have.”
Commenting on the project he has inspired, Kamanga expressed joy that ordinary farmers, who accessed fertiliser and hybrid maize and soya seeds, will benefit greatly during the harvesting season next year, when their micro-finance projects will also be expected to mushroom. n
