Malawi clinches 700m grant

The Malawi government will receive a K700 million grant for humanitarian assistance from the African Development Bank (AfDB).

The bank and the government of Malawi have signed an agreement for the grant in Lusaka, Zambia.

Malawi hopes the money will help mitigate effects of the 2015 floods and El Niño in 2016.

The grant follows President Peter Mutharika’s call for assistance from cooperating partners so that Malawi government should provide food relief to food insecure households.

Speaking after signing the agreement, AfDB Acting Vice-President said AfDB is committed to contribute an additional $7 million (about K5 billion) as a fast drought response in order to deal with food insecurity in Malawi.

On his part, Director for Planning and Development Patrick Simbani said the resources which were secured by March this year were not enough to meet the needs of targeted households.

“There are several development partners who responded to the call. However, the resources secured were not adequate to meet the needs of all the households by March 2016 and the effects of El Niño further threatened the likelihood of restoration to normalcy of the households already under relief program,” said Simbani.

About 8.4 million Malawians will be food insecure this year following persistent dry spells that led to low yields in most districts of the country.