By Chifipa Mhango

After listening closely to the MCP Manifesto launch over this past weekend, I am filled with deep despair about the future of Malawi.

So many questions came to my mind and they include:

• K500,000 for a new born?

• Who wrote this manifesto?

• Did they think carefully, based on reality and challenges the country faces?

• Are we serious as a country?

I will not repeat what I have presented in detail on the Economy of Malawi, but just to say, as political parties, let’s love our country and its people. Let’s be realistic rather than driven by electioneering greed for power to the point of taking advantage of the poverty that exists. Let’s propose sustainable solutions aimed at strengthening the economy rather than ruining it.

Malawi’s current economic situation has no fiscal space to support consumption policies or handouts – like the proposed K500,000 for newborns –  that in my opinion, only provides an incentive for population growth, despite it being unrealistic to implement.

The poverty in Malawi is man made due to greed by political leadership and stemming from the culture of economic mismanagement, which has found new heights under the MCP administration since 2020.

Malawi is under an economic turmoil of the highest order. We have high food prices not seen since independence 61 years ago. We have a widening trade deficit, attributed to dwindling export position and escalated imports. Our interest rates measured by the Reserve Bank lending rate at 26 percent is at the highest since 1964.

Which policy maker or those that love Malawi would want such an environment to deteriorate? 

I am of the view that those that crafted the MCP Manifesto were external consultants (not Malawians at all!) who don’t understand the economic reality of Malawi, and only looked at elections and not the future of the country. 

Malawi economic solutions need a productive and an investment driven, supportive environment, to which defeating corruption is a key pillar. There’s Mk264 billion which has been spent between May 2024 and May 2025, which can’t be accounted for, as spent under Other Expenditure. That money could have gone towards uplifting our people through health, better schools, improved education standards and better roads.

Poverty can’t be eradicated through reckless spending. Let’s present manifestos grounded in economic reality, not false promises that burden an already struggling economy, nor lies driven by the greed for political power.

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The author serves as Chief Economist at Don Consultancy Group based in South Africa.