National Bank of Malawi (NBM) – a leading banking institution in Malawi – has expressed commitment to providing startup capital to artisanal and small-scale miners to facilitate growth of the sector.

Malawi’s long-term development blueprint – Malawi 2063 (MW2063) –identifies mining as one of the strategic sectors that have potential to support industrialisation of the country’s economy.

In its initial 10-year MW2063 implementation plan, the country aims at harnessing the mining sector in value addition and increase export of finished products.

However, mining is largely informal economic sector that includes workers using basic tools to extract from the earth everything from gold and gemstones to vital metals.

But speaking at the Air Cargo Malawi Mining Stakeholders’ Forum on Friday, NBM Corporate Banking Manager, Frank Kunje, expressed the bank’s willingness to provide loan facilities to artisanal and small-scale miners.

Kunje NBM realizes the critical role mining sector plays to the growth of every economy in the world — Kunje: NBM realizes the critical role mining sector plays to the growth of every economy in the world

Kunje said this would enable the miners to grow and make quick gains from the sector.

“As you’d recall very well, from the MW2063, mining has actually come out very clear as a very strategic tool to the development of the country and us as the National Bank, we haven’t just been idle. We thought it’s also an opportunity that we can help our clients, especially the small and medium enterprises that are actually embarking into the mining sector,” he said.

He added, “So, as a bank, we have various products that we’ve developed in assisting these SMEs. And apart from the products, we’re not only stopping there, but we’re also putting various initiatives to help to export this because we’ve seen that mining sector can help the country to address problems of forex, and we have seen this as also an area which National Bank can help the country to end the problem of forex.”

Air Cargo Malawi Chief Executive Officer, Thokozani Unyolo, said the company observed that there has been a significant increase in volumes of rare earths being exported to western countries.

Unyolo stated that the forum was therefore organized to enable players and stakeholders in the mining sector to identify challenges the sector faces and suggest solutions to the same so that the country benefits more from the sector.

She added that metals are critical to the economies – necessary for computers, mobile phones, airplanes, medical devices, rechargeable batteries and much more.