By Alexander Nkosi
On the second day of being in office, Malawi’s new government has immediately put in place measures to cut down on waste in the use of public resources.
Resources are now being channelled into productive sectors as they target to revive and grow their economy.
The following measures were announced on day 2:
- Government increased minimum wage by 50% and tax-free threshold by 120%. This is meant to give workers some relief and encourage savings and investment. They want Malawians to invest in developing Malawi.
- They immediately released $55 million (1 billion Zambian Kwacha) to youths through the Malawi Enterprise Development Fund and another $48 million (800 million Zambian kwacha) is in the pipeline and will be released before the end of the year.
This is meant to help youths engage in various enterprises as they nature and groom them into Malawi’s leading investors.
They want investments and means of production in Malawi to be controlled by Malawians so that they can keep all the earnings within the economy, create jobs and turn Malawi into a regional production hub.
- They immediately introduced an agricultural inputs subsidy which will enable 3.5 million farmers access inputs at $5.5 (100 Zambian Kwacha) per bag.
Their medium term target is to ensure that there is universal access to agricultural inputs for all farmers .
Every economy has money, it all depends on how determined government is in cutting down wastage and channelling resources towards production sectors. It is all about getting your priorities right.
Note that I have converted the figures into Zambian kwacha as my audience is Zambian.
Thank you.
Utunesu
Utunesu
Alexander Nkosi is Development Economist