Malawi’s forex scarcity forces Ethiopian Airlines to suspend ticketing services for all travel agents

* Reserve Bank of Malawi has been unable to remit money to their accounts due to dwindling forex reserves

* This means that passengers traveling from Malawi will have to buy tickets in other countries

* However, the decision does not affect ticketing for the Malawi Airlines in the interim

By Duncan Mlanjira

Secretary for the Travel Agents Association of Malawi Eliza Chimbaya has confirmed with the local media that it has received a communication Ethiopian Airlines on Tuesday morning that it has suspended ticketing services for all travel agents in Malawi with immediate effect due to scarcity of forex in the country.

Chimbaya is quoted by the Malawi media, saying the concerns have been raised by the Ethiopian Airlines in recent months that the Reserve Bank of Malawi has been unable to remit money to their accounts due to dwindling forex reserves.

Chimbaya says this means that passengers traveling from Malawi will have to buy tickets in other countries. However, a source close to the decision is quoted as saying the decision does not affect ticketing for the Malawi Airlines in the interim.

On May 7, when Minister of Trade & Industry, Mark Katsonga-Phiri visited Illovo Sugar Malawi’s Nchalo Estate following the scarcity and skyrocketing prices of sugar, he had assured that forex would soon normalize following the conclusion of the sale of tobacco season.

He had said this after he had declared that Illovo Sugar should stop forthwith exporting sugar in order to re-flood the market with the commodity, whose scarcity had been attributed to hoarding by unscrupulous traders as well as illegal exportation to gain forex.

But Illovo Sugar Managing Director, Lekani Katandula had stressed that the company’s priority was on domestic consumption and only exports its surplus, adding that they have plans for the future to increase production so that after meeting the quota for domestic consumption, they should export more in line with the MW2063 agenda — which highlights that Malawi should become self-reliant by being an exporting country than relying on importation.

He said exporting goods brings in the much needed forex for the country’s economic development, which at moment is very scarce — thus some traders opting to illegally export sugar to neighbouring countries.

He had emphasized that the scarcity of the commodity was man-made, as discovered through the survey they made when it came to their attention of the sugar scarcity on the market that indicated the illegal exportation of the product to neighbouring countries such as Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania where Malawi’s Illovo sugar is cheaper.

Katandula assured the Minister that Illovo had enhanced its sugar production — both at Nchalo and Dwangwa factories to address the sugar scarcity in the country and declared that by the end of the week after the visit, the commodity would be readily available and at recommended price of K900/kg.

Katsonga had made an ultimatum that the company’s management shall be summoned before Cabinet Committee if supply did not normalize in a week’s time, which it did — going at K900/kg as opposed to K1,200-K1,500/kg.

In his statement, Katsonga-Phiri had seemed to have asked for the visit having had the suspicion that the scarcity and the increase of the prices was a deliberate move by Illovo to sabotage the Tonse Government administration.