AfDB gives Malawi K715m grant

Mercy Malikwa June 1, 2016

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The African Development Bank (AfDB) and government have signed a $1 million (about K715 million) grant agreement for a humanitarian emergency assistance to mitigate the effects of the 2015 floods and the 2016 El Nino.

The signing ceremony was hosted by Kapil Kapoor, AfDB acting vice-president, sector operations, during the bank’s annual meetings held in Lusaka, Zambia.

In a statement issued yesterday, the pan-African bank said Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development director of planning and development Patrick Simbani, who represented Malawi at the ceremony.

Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) board chairperson Bishop Joseph Bvumbwe is yet to act on demands from Secretary to Treasury Ronald Mangani that the board’s top bosses must be prosecuted. In March this year, our sister paper Weekend Nation revealed that Mera diverted K3 billion (about $4.4million) from the price stabilisation fund to purchase maize. But in his response, Mangani said it was not the duty of Mera to purchase maize. In an interview yesterday, Bvumbwe who succeeded Dingiswayo Jere about a month ago, said he needs to convene a meeting with members to discuss the way forward. “As you are aware, I am new in the post. There is a lot of work that I need to do but also to learn. At the moment, I want to convene a meeting with my fellow board members to discuss these issues,” said Bvumbwe. He said once the board meet, they will hear the Mera officials side of story before taking action. “It is only after this that a decision can be made,” Bvumbwe said. In his letter addressed to the Mera board, Mangani asked the top officials to return the money within three months. He further said the Public Finance Management Act provides that resources of statutory bodies maybe applied only for purposes specified in its empowering Act. The Energy Regulation Act and the Public Finance Management Act do not empower Mera to purchase maize, hence its resources cannot be used for that purpose. Reads the letter in part: “The executive management of Mera erred in referring to the Mera board a matter that was outside the board’s competence and mandate to handle. It is the responsibility of management to guide the board on procedures.”  — Called for humanitarian assistance: Mutharika

Simbani was quoted as saying that several development partners responded to President Peter Mutharika’s call for humanitarian assistance made when he declared the country a State of National Disaster in 2015 following the floods.

The statement further quotes Simbani as having said although that is the case, the resources secured were not adequate to meet the needs of all households by March 2016 and that effects of El Nino further threatened the likelihood of restoration to normalcy of households already under relief programmes.

“While the Government of Malawi with support of the cooperating partners was implementing a food relief programme to assist food insecure people, the country’s agriculture sector in 2016 was again affected by El Nino: delays in the onset of rains, droughts and floods across the country,” reads the statement in part.

Speaking in April this year at the end of his two-day visit of Malawi, AfDB Group president Akinwuni Adesina said it is time Malawi became food secure and started to feed itself instead of relying on donors for help.

Malawi is at the moment going through a hunger situation following prolonged dry spells during the 2015/2016 agricultural season. The situation has led the President to declare a State of National Disaster in the country. n

Mercy Malikwa June 1, 2016

1 minute read

Mercy Malikwa

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