The meeting with Dangote
* Over the past five years, President Chakwera has repeatedly announced grand investment deals supposedly secured during his many international trips
* These announcements are usually made with pomp and optimism but time and again, they have failed to materialise into anything tangible for the ordinary Malawian
By Duncan Mlanjira
Canada-based Malawian economic analyst, Dr. James Kadyampakeni has appealed to Malawians “to be wary of [President Lazarus] Chakwera’s so-called business deals” after latest announcement that he has secured an ‘investment deal’ with Africa’s richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote.
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Malawi Government announced on its official Facebook page, that President Chakwera — on his visit to Nigeria for the 32nd African Export-Import (Afrexim) Bank annual meetings in Abuja — he extended an invitation to Dangote, founder & president of Dangote Group, to invest in Malawi highlighting the country’s potential in key sectors such as agriculture, tourism and mining (ATM).
The Government reported that Chakwera held bilateral talks with Dangote on Friday where he pledged that “Malawi offers an enabling environment for investment, with opportunities for growth and development in various industries”.
He is quoted as saying: “Apart from agriculture, which is a significant sector in my country, Malawi’s tourism sector presents opportunities for investment, with the country’s rich cultural heritage and natural beauty attracting visitors from around the world.
“Additionally, the mining sector offers potential for growth, with Malawi having significant minerals. As such, investing in these sectors, which are key under my administration, can leverage your expertise and resources to drive economic growth and development, and I am inviting you to invest in Malawi,” Chakwera said.
In his response, Dangote is reported to have expressed gratitude to President Chakwera for the invitation, saying he is interested to explore investment in mining and manufacturing.
“I am excited with the invitation, and soon I will assign the group chief executive officer as the point of contact to work with the Malawi team to explore areas of investment in mining and manufacturing, especially cement.
“I have accepted your Excellency’s invitation to visit Malawi, and I will visit you soon,” said Dangote, founder of the Dangote Group — a multinational industrial conglomerate.
The Malawi Government sugar-coats the potential investment by taking cognizance that Dangote is Africa’s richest man and world’s richest black person, with a net worth of US$23.8 billion — and that Dangote Group has grown into a conglomerate with interest in cement, sugar, oil and gas.
However, Kadyampakeni observes that over the past five years, President Chakwera “has repeatedly announced grand investment deals supposedly secured during his many international trips”.
“These announcements are usually made with pomp and optimism but time and again, they have failed to materialise into anything tangible for the ordinary Malawian.
“In November 2021, President Chakwera declared that Malawi had signed a US$1 billion investment deal with the Egyptian firm Elsewedy Electric. It was presented as a transformative agreement for Malawi’s energy and industrial sectors — yet to this day, not a single kwacha of that investment has been seen, no construction has begun, and no jobs have been created.
“We were also promised an ‘early Christmas gift’ from Brigin — that, too, has gone silent as just another promise that made for a good headline and a nice photo opportunity, but delivered absolutely nothing on the ground.
“Now, during his recent visit to Nigeria, Dr. Chakwera has announced yet another ‘investment*deal”, but this raises a serious question: Is this just another one of those deals that sounds great in a press release but disappears without a trace?
“Malawians have heard this story before. We’ve been told that each foreign trip is worth the cost because it attracts investment but where is the evidence?”
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Kadyampakeni contends that “these repeated announcements without delivery have become a pattern [and that] it is beginning to appear that these so-called deals are being used to justify costly foreign travel, rather than to bring real, measurable development to Malawi”.
“We must hold our leaders to a higher standard. Announcements are not achievements; travel is not development; [and] press releases do not build roads, create jobs, or feed families.
“As a nation we deserve better — we need leaders who cannot only speak about investment, but actually deliver it; leaders who put the nation before publicity and substance before spectacle,” maintains Kadyampakeni.
The Malawi Government also reported that apart from meeting Dangote, Chakwera participated in a presidential panel discussion, “where he called on African leaders to prioritise scaling-up production and adding value to their products in order to shift the continent’s focus from exporting raw materials to becoming a hub of manufacturing and industrialisation”.
“The President later attended the official opening of Afrexim-Bank annual meetings, which was attended by a number of African and Caribbean leaders, including President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu; President of Gabon, Brice Nguema; heads of international organisations and governors of central banks.
