President Lazarus Chakwera says Malawi is not poor since the country is endowed with abundant and precious resources.
Chakwera said this on Thursday when he had an interface meeting with small-scale business operators at Sanjika Palace in Blantyre.
The Malawi president asked the vendors to explore untapped opportunities available in the country to generate wealth.
“People say Malawi is the poorest country but that is not a true reflection of it. This country is endowed with abundant and precious resources to use for mining for instance, and others.
“Let’s see ourselves as being capable of building modern markets, houses, above all, developing this country own our own,” said Chakwera.
He added that his government values inclusive wealth as enshrined in the Malawi 2063.
Chakwera, however, advised authorities from the National Economic Empowerment Fund (NEEF) to consider revising the terms and conditions for accessing loans so that ‘vendors’ should benefit from the fund to scale up their economic ventures.
In his remarks, Minister of Local Government, Unity and Culture, Richard Chimwendo-Banda hailed President Chakwera for meeting the vendors and he commended the business operators for contributing to the socio-economic development of the country.
Chimwendo also urged the vendors to advocate for peace and unity in their respective places.
On the other hand, National Economic Empowerment Fund (NEEF), Regional Manager Copeland Ngwira, encouraged the vendors to boost their businesses by applying for loans as individuals as well as groups.
“K86 billion has so far been disbursed to 158000 clients across the country, with K28 billion given to over 57, 960 clients from the southern region,” he said.
