* A strong governance system should be put in place to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of these enterprise where the President should directly be accountable in terms of their performances
* In primary sector, we need to have up to 10 state-owned mega integrated farms as big as 500 hectares and nationalised mining companies with advanced equipments
* In secondary sector, government should invest in mega processing units for organic fertilizer manufacturing and essential food items
* Like maize flour, rice, wheat flour, cooking oil, daily products, poultry product, meat products, fruit products, vegetable and herbs products
Analysis by Mwawi John Makwakwa
Malawi is now a market-led economy which makes the government to have very few or no control on the forces of supply and demand and also on price — hence the current hyper inflation that the country is currently facing. The economy is largely controlled by huge foreign owned businesses that are largely profit oriented.
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The solution is for the country to largely shift from market-led economy to mixed-led economy — where both government and market players have influence on price on the market with a huge influence from government.
For this to happen, government should work on prioritising huge investments in all the sectors of the economy — primary sector, secondary sector and tertiary sector.
Over the years, we have seen a lot of government regulatory bodies being institutionalised to enforce different constitutional Acts on the surviving prayers within different industries and sectors that are already struggling with high taxes that bring the effects of high inflation and increased bank interest rates.
These regulatory bodies also come with their exorbitant fees on top of the taxes, business licences, specific trade licences and business registration fees, among others — making it impossible for most ordinary Malawians to establish their own businesses and survive.
Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA)
The immediate solution to all this is in the government establishing huge enterprises both through public private partnership with ordinary Malawians and state-owned enterprises or nationalised industries.
As this is being done, a strong governance system should be put in place to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of these enterprise where the President should directly be accountable in terms of their performances.
In primary sector, we need to have up to 10 state-owned mega integrated farms as big as 500 hectares and nationalised mining companies with advanced equipments.
In secondary sector, government should invest in mega processing units for organic fertilizer manufacturing and essential food items like maize flour, rice, wheat flour, cooking oil, daily products, poultry product, meat products, fruit products, vegetable and herbs products.
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In addition to food items under secondary sector, the government should also invest in non-food items mega factories for essential products like soaps, body lotion/oils, garments, shoes, paper products, fiber/plastics/metal and cement products.
On top of this, the government should seriously invest and boost Malawi Housing Corporation and ensure its efficiency to shift from building just mere single units to refocus on upstairs accomodation buildings across the cities to ease the problem of access to decent, affordable and available accomodation.
President Chakwera launching MHC’s construction project of a six storey office complex to serve as MHC head office in Lilongwe in July 2024
Lastly, for tertiary sector, government should focus on a supermarket that can replace ShopRite and others that are at the point of closing business in Malawi and also improve efficiency in all monopoly services.
In addition to this, government should also seriously consider public private partnerships with both local and foreign investors to establish an enterprise for electric/solar trains to ease the problem of transport.
Electricity Generation Company (EGENCO) should also be boosted to be able to invest in the installation of solar systems on rooftops of most huge buildings in town so that the CBD of the main cities should be powered by solar to reduce load shedding.
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Where government engage Malawians through a public-private partnership agreement with famers cooperatives and other community clubs/associations to established these huge enterprises, a lot of people can have an opportunity to create a revenue stream by being part owners by gaining a profit share, being employed to work at the enterprises, being independent pre-qualified suppliers — while others being given an opportunity to sell the finished products in their different own brands.
This is what we call real economic transformation that is sustainable and generational.
As we are approaching September 16, 2025 general elections, I plead with the current President and the aspiring presidential candidate that will win to make sure that their agenda align well with the above current top most priority for our country, Malawi — to deal with the problem of food, shelter and clothing as basic needs.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
Mwawi John Makwakwa is a senior enterprise development consultant at Rhodes Consult in Africa based in Malawi
