By Pemphero Malimba:
About 1,000 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are at risk of facing legal action if they will not acquire 2025 licences by March 31 this year.
This follows the naming and shaming of NGOs that are yet to acquire licences for 2025 and those that have acquired the licences in a public notice published Wednesday and signed by NGO Regulatory Authority (Ngora) Chief Executive Officer Edward Chileka Banda.
According to the notice, the NGO Amendment Act, in Section 23(1), states that it is illegal to operate an NGO without proper registration.
It also says the NGO Act, in Section 22, mandates all NGOs to submit their annual reports to Ngora.
Notable NGOs that have been mentioned in the notice, in terms of not having 2025 licences, include Centre for Human Rights Education Advice and Assistance (CHREAA), Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC), Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD), Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) and Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM).
In the notice, Ngora has indicated that out of 1,146 NGOs registered in the country, only 167 have valid licences for 2025.
The NGOs regulator further indicates that, by December 31 2024, only 649 out of 1,132 registered NGOs had valid licences for 2024, meaning that 483 did not have valid licences.
“NGOs who submitted reports by 31 December 2024: 553; total income in the NGO sector in 2024: K734 billion,” Banda indicates in the public notice.
In an interview yesterday, Banda said the regulator would move in to take legal action if the NGOs would not comply with the law.
“Come 31 March, it means that NGOs that will not comply will be taken off the list and Ngora will commence legal action per the NGO Act. But this does not mean closing the organisation but we expect these organisations to comply by that day,” he said.
Banda said Ngora wanted NGOs to be accountable to Malawians.
“If an organisation wants to continue operating as an NGO, then it has to comply. it has to register; it has to make sure that it reports [to us] because the purpose of NGOs to report to the NGO regulatory authority is for the general public to understand what NGOs are doing,” he said.
Banda said the NGOs regulator had observed some situations where some individuals were masquerading as players in the NGO sector but were engaging in illicit transactions and harmful activities.
“We have some cases where some individuals who are hiding behind NGOs have been involved in human trafficking through fake adoptions, taking children from Malawi and selling them abroad. As such, those are the things that we are trying to stop,” he said.
CHREAA Executive Director Victor Mhango said he was surprised with the move.
“We close our accounts in December and we are now in the process of being audited. So, it is just unfortunate that it (Ngora) has released these names as earlier [as now]. That’s why you have seen that several organisations have been listed as not complying [with laws] but it is not like that. It is because it is not yet time,” Mhango said.
He said the organization was preparing annual and audit reports.
“We are hoping that we are going to beat the March 31 deadline for sure but the name and shaming, for us, is like we have not been complying, yet we have been complying every year, just that, this year, they have released the names early,” he said.
CSEC Executive Director Benedicto Kondowe, who is also National Advocacy Platform Chairperson, described the publishing of names of the NGOs as misguided and unprofessional.
“The law clearly requires NGOs to conduct a statutory audit before obtaining a licence, a process that typically takes place within the first quarter of the year. Routinely, any publication regarding compliance should have been made in April or May 2025, not prematurely.
“In the case of CSEC, we fulfilled our financial obligation by making the required payment on Monday [this week], meaning that there was no valid reason for our exclusion from the list of compliant organisations. This raises concerns about Ngora’s transparency and adherence to the due process,” Kondowe said.
He, therefore, challenged Ngora to discharge its duties professionally.
“Furthermore, Ngora’s statement regarding legal action against non-compliant NGOs by March 31 lacks merit when the regulatory authority itself is not following established procedures. NGOs cannot be expected to finalise their compliance [requirements] before completing the legally mandated audit process.
“This approach risks undermining the credibility of the regulatory framework and could be seen as an attempt to create unnecessary pressure on NGOs. We urge Ngora to act professionally and in accordance with the law to ensure a fair and transparent licensing process” he said.
Ngora issued a similar warning last year.
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