By Kingsley Jassi:
A slowdown in industry activities has seriously undermined implementation of Malawi 2063’s MIP-1 as it affects various areas of development, prompting the National Planning Commission (NPC) to gear up with other approaches.
NPC Director General Thomas Munthali expressed the worry when his institution signed a memorandum of understanding with Malawi University of Science and Technology (Must), saying there is need to turbo charge efforts for acceleration.
The partnership will see Must contributing to the industrial efforts through strategic industrial research that brings to the fore commercially scalable innovations that can transform the country’s industrial base.
“Malawi 2063 is about inclusive wealth creation and industrialisation. The industrialisation part is what is worrying us, we are not making as much traction lately,” Munthali said.
NPC’s MIP 1 progress report indicates a gradual reduction in the share of manufacturing to GDP since 2020, dropping by 0.5 percent as the share of manufacturing marginally reduced from 11.8 percent in 2022 to 11.7 percent in 2023.
Munthali further said the recent push by authorities to promote agriculture, tourism, mining and manufacturing (ATMM) needs improved supply of raw materials and exploitation of resources.
He said this is why NPC is moving into strategic partnerships to complement and actualise the policy direction and in the partnership with Must, the intention is to use industrial research, drawing lessons from countries like China.
“Must, the institution that has the Malawi Institute of Industrial Research and Innovation, so we said can we have an MOU with them so that they come up with fit-for-purpose innovations like our friends in China who look at what kind of automobile or farm implements does the economy require and go ahead to innovate and provide them,” Munthali said.
Must is already constructing a state of the art industrial park which is meant to commercialise innovations and act as a gateway for innovative solutions to the market.
According to the vice Chancellor, Professor Address Malata, the institution is already planning to have ICT gadgets assembling plants to ensure the country reduces importation of electronic products which can be assembled locally using technicians being trained at the university.
“We’ve decided, as a university, that we should promote entrepreneurship, setting up enterprises especially in the area of technology. I don’t think we’ve invested enough in preparing young people into manufacturing, as a country, and that is why the people are complaining about all these economic challenges,” Malata said.
NPC will also be making an assessment of the manufacturing sector to inform policy makers, development partners and the industry on key developments, challenges and opportunities for interventions, according to Munthali.
Meanwhile, there is also a worrying development of manufactured exports as the value has also marginally dropped in 2023 to $96 million from $135 million in 2022 values.
Malawi’s industry has been experiencing a host of constraints that include acute shortage of electricity which was followed by the persisting forex scarcity that affects importation of key manufacturing inputs while local sourcing of agricultural raw materials has also been challenging following low agricultural output.
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