NGO Board of Malawi registers 123 organisations

The NGO Board of Malawi says it has registered 123 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in 2016 alone.

NGO Board of Malawi Public Relations Kondwani Mkandawire said the number has increased this year following the introduction of online registration.

“We have done more awareness on the need to register the NGOs that is why more NGOs are now coming in to register with NGO Board,” Mkandawire said.

He said the database with NGO Board now shows that there are 594 NGOs. However Mkandawire said there are still some NGOs which have not registered with the board.

“Council for Non-Governmental Organization database shows 914 NGOs as of 2015 data. The question is why are the 320 NGOs not coming forward?” he queried.

NGO Board chairperson Abigail Dzimadzi recently said the organisation is doing everything possible to ensure that every NGO is registered with the board.

“That is why we have introduced online registration so there should be no excuses,” Dzimadzi said.

She added that the laws are clear that any NGO which is failing to comply should be deregistered.

“Section 23 subsection 1 of the NGO Act says the board may order the registrar to cancel or suspend registration of an NGO if the NGO has failed to comply with the provisions of the act so we don’t want to reach that very far but should this continue, we will have no option but to apply laws as they are because we cannot regulate an unregistered entity” Said Dzimadzi.

In an interview, NGO and CSOs Grand coalition spokesperson Lucky Mbewe said the introduction of online registration is a welcome development wealth commending.

However, Mbewe said the board needs to put in place measures of registering NGOs in rural areas.

He added that more measures are required because most NGOs operates from the rural areas where there is no electricity and internet.