BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—In a Biblical Adam’s like conversation with God, where the former responded “I’m naked” when was simply asked of his whereabout, Malawi leader Lazarus Chakwera gave a litany of irrelevant statements when he was simply asked to give total number of jobs created so far as per Tonse Alliance’s promise before election.
In a highly charged interview on the BBC’s HARDtalk, the maverick journalist Sarah Montague zeroed in on the status of the President’s promise to create 1 million jobs in one year, accusing him of failing to do so.
Reacting, the Malawi Leader dispels assertions that he has failed to create a million jobs, saying Affordable Inputs Program created thousands of jobs for the youth.
“When we started for example with Affordable Inputs Program, we had thousands of jobs. Young people were employed across the country with millions of people accessing the affordable inputs. It was 3.5 million actually able to access the inputs,” explained Chakwera.
He insisted that the Affordable Inputs Program, which had given 3.7 million smallholder farming households access to low cost fertilizer and produced the highest yield of crops on record, had created income generating work for hundreds of thousands of rural Malawians.
Additionally, Chakwera touted the National Economic Empowerment Fund (NEEF), which he alleged to have this far created 45,000 new businesses through the distribution of £10 million pounds in loans.
However, Chakwera conceded that the Covid-19 pandemic, which has ravaged the global economy, has not spared Malawi, destroying 600,000 thousand jobs that need to be recovered.
The BBC HARDtalk interview is the flagship program by the British Broadcasting Corporation, and provides in-depth interviews with hard-hitting questions and sensitive topics being covered as famous personalities from all walks of life talk about the highs and lows in their lives.
