JB says Malawi good for investors to trade

Malawi President Joyce Banda has asked foreign investors to do their trade in Malawi because her administration has made tremendous changes by coming up with conducive policies for investors.

The President said this on Thursday when she attended a Grow Africa Forum under the ongoing 23rd World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa at Cape Town International Convention Centre in South Africa, where she was among eight African leaders that make their commitment to agriculture development in their respective countries.

“I took over the presidency of Malawi at a very difficult time. Actually, Malawi was a sinking ship that investors were very much scared to put their money on. But we have now developed policies that investors would be happy with,” she said.

She said 12 months ago, Malawi was ranked 157 on the World Bank Index as potential countries where investors can invest, but hoped that with the new and investor oriented reforms her government has developed, it would be placed among the best countries of investment.

Banda said agriculture is not a development issue, but rather a financial business matter, where people even those in rural setting need to earn their living from it.

Banda said apart from the subsidy programme, which is currently, benefiting about 1.5 million people, her government wants to introduce a loan scheme programme that would benefit three million people.

“Through this programme, we are hoping that over three million Malawian will be benefiting. We really need this programme to support the 85 percent of the population who live in rural areas where access to farm inputs is very difficult they have low financial muscle.