By The Forum
The Forum departs from convention by occasionally commenting on issues it hasn’t directly reported. Contributors are free to weigh in on governance matters, which is our core focus. Some readers have wondered why we don’t cover leisure or lifestyle, but that’s by design. We specialize in governance because that’s where we believe Malawi’s story needs the most attention.
If our content makes you think, reflect, or even talk to someone about how to make Malawi work better for its people, then we’ve done our job. More than 60 years after independence, millions of Malawians remain trapped in economic hardship. Something isn’t working and pretending otherwise won’t fix it.
As the late Guyanese scholar Walter Rodney argued in How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Africans themselves must lead in dismantling systems of underdevelopment. Malawi is no exception. Our friend Nkhondo Lungu, who continues to champion Malawi’s progress from abroad, calls this project “an exercise to awaken the consciousness of our people.”
Now to Parliament; and to Agriculture Minister Roza Fatch Mbilizi, who on Monday delivered a sharp warning.
Speaking before lawmakers, Mbilizi revealed that under the previous Malawi Congress Party (MCP) administration, some so-called beneficiaries of the mega farm input program were not farmers at all.
“They were mere vendors who resold the inputs,” she said, adding that no effort was made to recover the funds disbursed as far back as 2023. “Out of MK6 billion, only MK2 billion was paid back. This money must be repaid by the end of December 2025, or they will face the law.”
She emphasized: “I want to assure Malawians that all is not lost. All this money will be recovered — whether one likes it or not.”
Then she parted with this shot to the opposition: “I request my colleagues on the other side to sit down, relax, and watch what it really takes to run a government.”
Loan defaulting is hardly new in Malawi. Days before his inauguration, President Peter Mutharika warned civil servants and politicians against exploiting the transition period through the National Economic Empowerment Fund (NEEF).
“Huge payments are being made, money is being transferred, vehicle numbers changed, dubious contracts honored, and questionable loans issued,” Mutharika cautioned. “Those doing this must stop. Any irregular decisions will be nullified.”
Originally established in 2014 as MARDEF, later MEDF, and now NEEF, the fund was meant to empower small businesses. Instead, it has been repeatedly dogged by claims of political favoritism and mass loan defaults.
In his State of the Nation Address on October 31, marking the opening of the 52nd Session of Parliament and the Mid-Term Budget Review, Mutharika announced the reintroduction of the Farm Input Subsidy Program (FISP). The initiative will target 1.1 million households this farming season.
Each beneficiary will receive two 50kg bags of fertilizer and a 5kg seed pack of their choice at a subsidized rate.
“Beneficiaries will pay MK10,000 per 50kg bag of fertilizer,” Mutharika said, warning against the sale of fake fertilizer. The actions in his words were “wrong and inhuman.”
He tasked the Malawi Bureau of Standards and the Malawi Police Service to clamp down on fraud, noting that a feasibility study for a domestic fertilizer plant had already been completed to make local production affordable.
But the question remains: will this administration finally make systems work for the people it claims to serve? Like unpaid loans, promises are only as good as those who keep them.
Unfortunately, there are signs — early warning signs, some might call them — that are hard to ignore. The much-hyped maize import deal with Zambia has yet to deliver a cob of maize. For all the fanfare, what’s unfolding looks less like food security and more like another case of government inertia, which is plenty of paper-shuffling, no money on the table and no maize where it’s needed most.
