The Malawi Parliament yesterday, passed four financial bills aimed at boosting the country’s development and governance.
The bills, presented by Minister of Finance, Simplex Chithyola Banda on Tuesday, September 10, 2024, received support from both sides of the House.
The first bill to be passed was Bill No. 13 of 2024, International Development Association (Additional Financing for Malawi Governance to Enable Service Delivery project) (Authorisation) whose value is equivalent to K61 billion.
This bill aims to support Malawi’s efforts to improve governance and public service delivery in several key areas and will be implemented by District Councils.
The project’s overall goal is to contribute to improved governance, transparency, and public service delivery in Malawi, ultimately benefiting the country’s citizens.
The House also passed the following bill: Bill No. 14 of 2024: International Development Association (Digital Malawi Acceleration Project under the Inclusive Digitalization in Eastern and Southern Africa Multi-phase Programmatic Approach Program) (Authorisation and Ratification). Bill No. 15 of 2024: International Development Association (Malawi Health Emergency Preparedness Response and Resilience Project (Authorisation and Ratification). And Bill No. 16 of 2024: International Development Association (Malawi Fiscal Government Program for Results (Authorisation).
Speaking after the passing of the bills, Minister Simplex Chithyola Banda said the four bills are very crucial to the management of Malawi’s economy, and the passing of the four bills is an indication that the House has trust and confidence in the way President Lazarus Chakwera is managing Malawi’s economy.
“These are crucial bills to the management of Malawi’s economy. Remember, we told Malawians that immediately we are in, we will be able to convince the donor partners to give us resources, including budget support. Some of the bills that we have presented in this house are budgetary support.
“These are also bills that are enhancing delivery in the health sector but also preparing and responding including building resilience during disaster periods not only that, we are also looking at enhancing transparency and accountability by coming up with what we call programs for results you perform you get financing and World Bank has helped us to initiate that kind of programming,” said Banda.
Leader of opposition in Parliament George Chaponda emphasized that once the funds have been received they should be used as intended
“We all know that this government has an appetite for over-spending and using resources for trivial activities. We can assure you all that as the opposition, we will ensure that these funds are used as we have authorized in parliament today,” said Chaponda.
