Government to construct Mzuzu Youth Centre

Malawi Government has said it will ensure that the Mzuzu Youth Centre (MYC) project takes off at all cost.

MYC has been a ghost project for years despite Parliament approving K30 million and K20 million in the 2010/11 and 2011/12 national budgets, respectively.

Government has approved K200 million for the same project in this year’s budget.

Speaking in an interview on Tuesday, Minister of Sports and Youth Development Grace Chiumia said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led government will ensure the money allocated is accounted for by having the facility in place.

She said the centre, which is estimated to cost in the range of K500 million to K600 million, will be constructed with other allocations being made in the next budgets.

Asked what happened to the past allocations, Chiumia said she was informed delays in finding land led to withdrawal of money from the project.

But Youth and Society (YAS) executive director Charles Kajoloweka said in an interview failure to construct the youth centre by the previous governments when money and land were already in place should be investigated.

“There is need to investigate where the past allocations went; the money could have been lost in the infamous Cashgate,” said Kajoloweka.