Malawi to benefit from K3.8bn Comesa pact
Malawi will benefit from European Union’s (EU) £4.4 million (about K3.8 billion) technical cooperation facility (TCF) fund to support implementation of regional integration programmes in the Eastern Africa, Southern Africa, and India Ocean (EA-SA-IO) region.
The pact, signed last week in Zambia by EU head of delegation to Zambia Alessandro Mariani and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) secretary general Sindiso Ngwenya will be split among five regional economic communities.
These are Comesa, Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc), East African Community (EAC), Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad) and Indian Ocean Commission (IOC).
A statement made available to Business News yesterday said the money is part of an overall fund of £1.3 billion provided by the EU under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) Regional Indicative Programme (RIP) for the EA-SA-IO region signed in June 2015 for the period 2014 and 2020.
Mariani said TCF will be instrumental in supporting the design of new regional programmes to be funded by EU in EA-SA-IO region.
“Among others, it will provide technical support for studies, sector surveys, stakeholders’ consultations, communication and monitoring activities in various development areas such as trade integration, migration, maritime security and wildlife conservation,” he said.
Mariani said the TCF will also support policy dialogue between Comesa and the EU, as well as coordination among the regional organisations in Africa.
Of the amount, £600 million will be used for blending and leveraging of funds to enable implementation of regional infrastructure projects; £205 million for selected cross-regional actions and £450 million for specific envelopes of Comesa, EAC, Igad, IOC and Sadc.
In his remarks, Ngwenya was quoted as saying Comesa already has a framework to ensure that it delivers time-bound results and demonstrate value for money for TCF.
He thanked EU for its continued support to the economic integration of the EA-SA-IO region, and in particular, the Comesa sub-region, saying without the support of the EU the achievements made by Comesa in regional integration would have been less than optimal.
Ministry of Trade and Industry spokesperson WiskesMkombezi recently said Malawi is likely boost trade this year on the back of instruments that ministry is putting in place to enhance access to and cost of finance for small and medium enterprises.
