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Market, bus depot to boost KK revenue

 

Nkhotakota District Council expects to get a boost in revenue to support its operational costs, thanks to the completion of a bus depot and a market.

Currently, the council is struggling to pay its employees monthly salaries and wages with some claiming that they are owed three months’ pay. The authorities have blamed the situation on the low revenue collected from the council’s markets.

In an interview, Nkhotakota District director of planning and development Michael Chimbalanga said the council hopes to raise its income once the newly constructed Nkhotakota Bus Depot and Dwangwa Market become fully operational.

New revenue stream: The Nkhotakota Bus Depot

Built with funding from KFW through the Local Development Fund (LDF), the K300 million structure has restaurants, shops and a police unit, among other facilities.

“In our proposed reform areas we submitted to the committee, we highlighted the need to improve our revenue collection. So as part of fulfilling what we had suggested, we are doing such projects,” he said.

Chimbalanga said the council collects less than K3 million monthly, which is below the council’s K3.6 million wage bill. The council gets a monthly allocation of about K5 million from the central government.

“Due to failure to generate enough revenue, it has been difficult for us to pay our direct employees in time. But we are doing everything we can to address the problem,” he said.

Dwangwa Market was opened in 2012 by the then President Joyce Banda although it was still under construction at the time.

Meanwhile, some council employees have expressed concern over the council’s failure to pay them their dues in time. n

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