NCIC empowers community-based contractors

National Construction Industry Council (NCIC) plans to train community-based contractors in their respective localities to enable them competently undertake construction projects.

NCIC chief executive officer Linda Phiri told Malawi News Agency last week this is aimed at empowering small-scale local contractors who have potential to realise their dreams but lack necessary skills to move forward.

“NCIC is striving to create a dynamic construction industry that fosters economic growth and international competitiveness, but this empowerment has to start at community level, especially on road construction,” she said.

Phiri said they are some remote areas in the country where rolling out small projects is difficult because most local contractors shun them on the basis that they cannot manage them.

“There are numerous contractors capable of performing, but the technical know-how of undertaking those projects is what is lacking in them.

“Currently [as a country], we are undertaking the least of construction projects in Malawi and we want to change that. This has to start at grassroot levels,” she said.

A recent report by NCIC shows that only four percent of construction projects in the country are being undertaken by Malawian contractors, while the remaining 96 percent are taken by foreign firms.

NCIC was established through an Act of Parliament in 1996 with a clear mandate to regulate, promote and development the local construction industry.—Mana