By Kingsley Jassi:
The country’s economy is expected to attract about $1.1 billion in foreign direct investments (FDIs) at the end of the current fiscal year, the Malawi Investment and Trade Centre (MITC) has indicated.
MITC, in a presentation made on Wednesday for the parliamentary cluster that is focusing on industry, trade and information, projects the inflows to marginally grow to $1.2 billion in 2026.
This is an improvement from 2023 investments worth $841.3 million that had job creation potential of slightly less than 17 000.
However, there was no breakdown on sectoral investments and source countries, with an attempt to get them yet to materialise.
This year’s investments have potential to rake in $160 million of exports once they are actualised, adding to the current export capacity.
The projection for next year’s additional exports is $175 million, according to MITC.
Meanwhile, MITC Director General Kruger Phiri has expressed optimism that in the next nine months, some investments would materialise at Magwero Industrial Park, which is under the Special Economic Zone framework.
The Chigumula one, which is under the same framework, also completes, with four investors already waiting.
“Magwero is moving fast. We have already signed a lease agreement for the Export Development Fund, releasing over 466 hectares, and this week the shareholders agreement will be signed,” Phiri said.
He further disclosed that the first lot of investments at Magwero Industrial Park is expected to be in agriculture-based manufacturing, with the development expected to take five years.
Malawi’s economic performance has been hampered by multiple causes, with low FDIs that limit industrial growth, as observed by the World Bank through a paper called ‘The Narrow Path to Transformation’.
On savings and investment trends, the report shows the country had lowest levels on both, except for brief periods soon after democratisation and the Highly Indebted Poor Countries initiative.
For instance, 2019 figures on investment show gross fixed capital formation as a share of gross domestic product at just 12.3 percent, barely half the regional norm.
“That made Malawi the country with the seventh lowest investment rate among 171 economies, only ahead of Zimbabwe, which was fighting hyperinflation, among its peers.
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