Malawi has signed a $1.4 billion (K1.1 trillion) deal with Afreximbank as the Peter Mutharika administration seeks to develop Mangochi into Malawi’s tourism hub.
In June, Mutharika said Mangochi will be like Acapulco, a beach resort town in Mexico.
On Thursday, Mutharika’s government signed a memorandum of understanding with the bank which will finance various projects in the lakeshore district.
The projects include construction of a new International Airport in Mangochi; a state of the art Holiday Resort on Lake Malawi; a Logistics Park in Mangochi; and industrial Parks in Lilongwe and Blantyre.
Speaking after signing the deal, Mutharika said the development of tourism in Mangochi will increase Malawi’s productivity, increase trade output, create more jobs for the youth and bring more tourists to Malawi.
“With a new international airport in Mangochi, the world can fly straight to Lake Malawi. We want to make Malawi a tourism star of the world.
“With the Afreximbank support, we are ready to turn the Nankumba Peninsula into a hub for tourism, finance and transport logistics. And we expect to create not less than 40,000 jobs on this Cape Maclear tourism project,” he said.
The Malawi leader added that the Industrial Parks will attract both local and foreign investors to manufacture various industrial products such as textiles, electronics and furniture which will need youth from Technical Colleges.
He also commended Afreximbank for financing private sector investment saying his dream is for Malawi to have a bigger private sector and a smaller public sector so that the country can become a producing and exporting economy.
On his part, Afreximbank president Benedict Oramah said the bank wants to contribute to the development of Malawi and will look to fund more projects.
Orama signed the Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of Afreximbank while Finance Minister Joseph Mwanamvekha signed on behalf of Malawi.
