Govt secures forex for drugs imports

Central Medical Stores Trust (CMST) board chairperson Josiah Mayani says the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) has moved in to facilitate access to foreign currency for procurement of drugs.

In an interview after hosting the media on Monday evening, he said most drug suppliers require upfront payment as such shortage of forex hits the supply chain hard.

Mayani said the trust could not access forex from January to March to import drugs, leaving their warehouses with a 60 percent stockpile; but thanks to government’s intervention the situation is improving.

“Now, government, through [RBM], is providing forex for us and we are able to procure drugs from outside the country,” he said.

He said the central bank has ring-fenced some forex for drug procurement to avoid stock outs.

He said the trust owed suppliers in excess of K22 billion in 2021, but government paid some arrears and the current bill is K16 billion, which Capital Hill has committed to offset by paying suppliers directly.

In the 2020/21 financial year, government allocated K12 billion for capitalisation of the trust, in the 2021/22 National Budget, Capital Hill injected K12.5 billion and in the current financial year, K5 billion has been set aside.

Meanwhile, CMST director of pharmaceutical operations Geoffrey Ngwira said the trust has lost between K8 billion and K10 billion in the past four years through expired drugs.

He said to prevent the expiry, they will donate to public hospitals drugs projected to expire in the near future.

In an interview yesterday, director of health technical support services Godfrey Kadewere said recapitalisation of CMST is happening in phases.

He said: “Recapitalisation of the [Trust] is critical and once this is done, it means government will only give the budget as in recurrent every year to the customers of the Central Medical Stores who happen to be public hospitals.”

In a separate interview, Malawi Health Equity Network executive director George Jobe urged government authorities to consider allocating forex for the procurement of drugs as an utmost priority.

“Our appeal is that in the rationing of forex, the health sector must be prioritised. Other procurements that are not urgent in nature must be postponed,” he said.