President Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera has said his travel to Ghana to attend the Afrexim Bank annual meeting and has been highly successful and beneficial to the development agenda of the country.
President Chakwera returned home Tuesday night with one of the remarkable achievement from the trip being a staggering K2.6 trillion development package from Afrexim Bank to finance various projects, including financing of mega farms.
“We are back from the Afreximbank annual meetings with distinct dividends in form of multi-billion investment deals towards establishment of two mega farms, an export trading company and modern industrial parks in Blantyre and Lilongwe.
“We have also received firm assurances from the multilateral financial institution for alignment to our roadmap towards normalisation of Malawi’s debt sustainability,” he said.
President Dr Chakwera said it was a successful tour of duty on which the government will tie some key aspects of the country’s aspirations as informed by the Malawi2063 development agenda.
Afriexim Bank has given Malawi the US$2.6 billion (K2.6 trillion) grant to finance construction of mega farms, industrial parks and special economic zones.
This follows the signing of memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Government of Malawi and the bank which President Dr Chakwera witnessed on Monday in Accra, Ghana.
President Dr. Chakwera described the signing of the MoU as a milestone which will help transform lives of Malawians.
Chakwera described the deals as important to Malawi, saying the mega farms will contribute to food security which is at the heart of Malawi2063.
President Dr. Chakwera also discussed with President of AfreximBank, Benedict Oramah the K650 million debt restructuring for Malawi which the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) led government took.
“We had an interesting and candid discussion with the bank which has shown solidarity in many ways. We have been assured that the talks will continue.
“This is important as, through it, Malawi will have an Extended Credit Facility (ECF) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF),” he said.
Minister of Finance, Sosten Gwengwe expressed gratitude to Afrexim Bank for opening discussion talks on Malawi’s debt restructuring.
He said one of the conditions for the IMF granting Malawi an ECF is the country’s ability to work on its liabilities so that when it receives the money it will not be used in servicing its loans.
Gwengwe said the country has a huge loan with the bank hence the need for the two to renegotiate a repayment plan.
He said by getting Malawi a debt restructuring plan the bank will also be able to avoid being downgraded.
“A debt restructuring plan is a win-win situation for both the bank and the country as the country will have resources it needs,” said Gwengwe.
President Dr Chakwera had other side meetings with other heads of state and other officials during the meeting and also participated in a round table discussion on economic and social issues affecting Africa.
