APM pleads for AfDB support

President Peter Mutharika yesterday pleaded with the African Development Bank (AfDB) not to abandon Malawi in terms of provision of budgetary support as other donors have done.

AfDB remained the only donor that supported Lilongwe with budget support after several bilateral donors continued to withhold the support amid concerns of mismanagement of public funds in the wake of the 2013 revelations of the plunder of public funds at Capital Hill widely known as Cashgate.

Said Mutharika: “I would like to request the bank to continue providing support to the Government of Malawi, preferably through budget support which is our preferred mode of aid delivery as we continue implementing the [public finance management] reforms.”

The President made the remarks during a meeting he had with nine executive directors and members of the board of the AfDB alongside Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe.

Briefing the delegation, Mutharika said government is implementing two major reforms—Public Financial and Economic Management and Public Service—which he described as crucial to attaining efficiency in service delivery.

He said Malawi’s dream to wean itself from aid dependence will not be realised without support from institutions such as AfDB.

The President thanked the AfDB for providing to Malawi sector budget support of over $26 million targeting the health and education sectors.

Ironically, the President’s appeal for budget support came barely days after the Minister of Finance told Parliament that government was working on strategies to wean itself from donor dependence.

Winding up debate on the Mid-year Budget Review Statement on Monday, Gondwe said the changing landscape of development assistance, where bilateral donors have decided to stop providing budget support of all countries, including Malawi, should be a wake-up call for Malawi to implement durable structural budgetary reforms.

In an interview later, leader of the AfDB delegation Sammy Zaghoual was non- committal on the President’s plea for budgetary support, saying there was need for further discussions with the Malawi Government on the matter.

However, he said the bank is committed to supporting various reforms in agriculture and infrastructure development to help Malawi achieve economic independence.

The AfDB Group is a multilateral development finance institution comprising AfDB, the African Development Fund (ADF) and the Nigerian Trust Fund. Its shareholders include 54 African countries and 28 non-African States.