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With the year 2016 approaching the end, summer vacationing in season and rains around the corner, Standard Bank has launched a new loan offer that allows customers top up their existing loan within 24 hours. Continue reading Standard Bank launches Kachikena loan season
Airtel Malawi has donated MK14.4Million to the Malawi Queens to enable them participate in the Fast Five Netball World Series on slated for October 29 and 30 2016 in Melbourne, Australia.
Receiving the cheque, Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) President Rosemary Chinunda said the money will enable Queens to participate in the tournament.
“You are indeed our real friends who never get tired when knocking on your door,” said Chinunda.
Handing over the cheque, Airtel Malawi Country Director Francis Matseketsa said”The bond between NAM and Airtel Money has grown stronger; together we have developed local netball talent and increased our national Netball team competitiveness.”
Matseketsa said “The MK14.4 Million which will enable the queens to train and compete in conditions befitting world class athletes is another milestone in our long standing partnership.”
The donation is final instalment out of K360 Million which Airtel Money committed as its sponsorship commitment.
Matseketsa has since expressed satisfaction with the performance of the Queens.
But the delivering the message from Minister of Labour, Sports, Youth and Manpower Development, Director of Sports, Mr James Ndalama said the Minister has ordered them to be among the best four teams in the world.
“The Minister wanted to be here himself however he has just ordered me that he wants the Queens to qualify at best four,” Said Ndalama.
As Malawi grapples with its worst electricity black-out crisis in history, a window of opportunity has opened for the country to tap into a US$300 million power and infrastructure fund to be managed in Africa by Standard Bank group, currently one of Malawi’s largest banks.
Backed by U.S Government’s development finance institution, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and Wells Fargo Bank, the fund will see Standard Bank providing US$33 million from its balance sheet to support transactions financed by the facility.
In a recent statement released in New York, the fund is a 12-year finance program and was signed on the sidelines of the recent US-Africa Business Forum.
The statement says about $150 million of the facility will support power transactions as part of President Obama’s Power Africa initiative, with up to $100 million available for other strategic infrastructure projects beyond the power sector.
Says Sim Tshabalala, Standard Bank Group Chief Executive:
“Power and infrastructure play a crucial role in the economic development of Africa. We are delighted to be part of such an important initiative and look forward to working with OPIC and Wells Fargo to promote sustainable economic growth and to make a real difference to the lives of the people of Africa. Standard Bank has the experience, knowledge and presence in Africa to make this project a resounding success.”
For her part, OPIC President and CEO Elizabeth Littlefield said her organisation is excited to collaborate on an initiative that will have a long-lasting impact on the lives of millions throughout Africa.
“By supporting both infrastructure and power projects, this forward-thinking loan facility brings badly-needed capital to the table and will pave the way for future development in Africa to take root and grow,” she said.
Wells Fargo Executive Vice President Chuck Silverman said the fund will target low-income and IDA-eligible countries in Africa to finance renewable energy projects.
“Wells Fargo is pleased to sponsor this landmark facility for The Standard Bank of South Africa. We are proud to have worked in close partnership with OPIC to arrange and co-lend in support of this project”, he said.
Malawi’s premier mobile service provider, TNM, has launched “Za Bhoo” promotion which aims at rewarding customers with different exciting prizes.
Speaking during the launch of the promotion in Blantyre, TNM Chief Consumer Services Officer Daniel Makata said Za Bhoo promotion is part of demonstrating their gratitude to their customers.
“TNM continues to grow phenomenally in both terms of coverage and customer acquisition. This is attested in latest financial results of the company, and we felt obliged to reward our customers for contributing towards business growth,” said Makata.
Makata disclosed that the grand prizes for “Za Bhoo” promotion is cash amounting to K5 million as well as fridges, smart screens among others.
“Apart from the designed prizes, TNM subscribers will also get rewards in form of TNM-TNM free talk time minutes for every recharge above K100 during the promotion. The aim is to make sure that each and every customer gets rewarded for choosing the premium network,” he said.
According to Makata, to enter the promotion, TNM subscribers are required to recharge with scratch cards of K100, K200, K500 and K1000 respectively and stand a chance to win various exciting prizes for Za Bhoo Recharge & Win, SMS QUIZ to 9090.
“Customers are having a chance of winning in the weekly and monthly draw for Za Bhoo TNM Quiz,” he disclosed.
He therefore revealed that the promotion will runs from September to November 2016.
Malawi’s integrated mobile network and ICT service provider TNM has contributed K2.5 million to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Malawi (ICAM) in support of this year’s ICAM Lake Malawi conference slated from September 15 to 17, 2016 at Nkopola in Mangochi. Continue reading TNM contributes K2.5m for accountants meet
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)–The Chartered Institute of Marketers (CIM) has reiterated the need for building Malawi as a recognisable international brand for attracting investors, tourists and other businesses into the country, saying if properly implemented money in form of forex will come into the country.
Speaking on MBC Radio 1 on Wednesday during Malawi Panolama program monitored by Maravi Post, CIM president Timothy ngwira said most of the countries are attracting a lot of trade because of the branding and unique positions they have taken in the global village.
“We pioneered the brand Malawi initiative in the sense that as marketers we saw Malawi as a nation is not branded. Most of the nations now are branded.
By branded we mean that the nations are taking unique positions in this global village in the way that they are able to attract investments as they are able to attract trade because of the branding and the unique positions they have taken.
“Kenya is branded, south Africa is branded and a lot of countries are branded. So as Malawi we saw it that we losing out in terms of qualities of resources because these are the channels that investors think can make profit.
So by the end of the day as marketers because we saw as an organization we owe the nation as well, we came in and drafted the concept paper on brand Malawi. We engaged the ministry of tourism two years ago and now government came in and gave a nod to that.
I am happy to state our organization together with government, where government is represented by the ministry of tourism and the office of the president and cabinet and other ministries we have had a lot of meetings this far.
We are now putting together the background how we can carry this forward,” said Ngwira.
Ngwira said if fully embraced, Malawi as a nation will benefit a lot from the branding.
“There are so many benefits because when we brand the nation business activities that happen in the country revolves around that particular branding.
For example if we brand Malawian food, it means that when it goes out there, that particular food or any other type of commodity will be looked at in that perspective, so people will be able to say this is Nali from Malawi, this is another type of pepper from somewhere else.
Which one should I buy? Because the Nali from Malawi will be branded in a certain way, branded around a certain kind of message, branded around a certain kind of perspective that cannot be compared so if a person wants Malawian Nali it will be Malawian Nali.
“A certain thing is that when it comes to investment, you find that let’s say Malawi here, people much as the government has taken an initiative here but maybe we haven’t drummed up a lot of marketing messages around that and probably we need brand Malawi thing to come and support that investment initiative.
When we talk of tourism, specifically is branded in a certain way. In other countries different areas are branded in various ways.
In Malawi we need the same thing, let’s say Nsanje, we can brand Nsanje as a city of salt or a district of salt.
We brand chitipa as land of rolling hills, so when tourists come to Malawi will be saying Malawi is branded in this way but districts are branded in certain ways.
Instead of that tourist just come and visit Mulanje mountain, the tourist will be encouraged to stay on and visit other areas that are branded in certain unique ways,” he said.
Malawi president Peter Mutharika has also been encouraging the business community to be creative so as to attract foreign customers.
Dr. Chikaonda served as a Professor of Finance at Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada from 1988 to 1994. He holds a PhD in Finance, MBA in Finance, BA in Finance & Economics (Hons); it was with these lofty credentials that many Presidents trusted him to lead many institutions in the country.
The days that begun with so much promise as the savior of Kamuzu Banda’s dream are waning into a goodnight without fulfillment. Chikaonda was proclaimed by many to be the savior of the new Malawi Democracy; however he will leave his latest high profile job at best with a bag of mixed results. Continue reading Dr. Mathews A. P. Chikaonda retirement comes with many unfulfilled promises
The effects of climate change in African countries have been enormous and smallholder farmers are the ones affected badly because their farming has always been subsistence.
One of the challenges farmers are facing is availability of seeds that can suit the environment in their locality.
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has partnered with private sectors to produce seeds that are drought tolerant and available close to farmers in an effort to transform agriculture in Africa.
According to Joe DeVeries, Chief of Agriculture Transformation at AGRA said secretariat smallholder farmers in Africa need totally new seed varieties that are tolerant to weather of their areas.
“We need local seed manufacturing companies that will give our farmers local seeds that are improved to suit the changing environment in Africa,” said DeVeries.
In Kenya AGRA has partnered with a private local entrepreneur Ngila Kimotho who has established a seed manufacturing company located in the highly drought affected area Machakos County.
Dryland Seed Company has established itself as a leader in production of drought tolerant seed crop varieties.
The company also provides an after sales service with practical advice to farmers and it has developed and commercialized climate smart seeds from a capacity of five metric tons in 2007 to over 100 metric tons at the end of AGRA grant in 2012.
According to the Managing Director Ngila Kimotho the company expects to reach 1000 metric tons per year by 2017. Just like in Malawi a lot of smallholder farmers in Kenya do not believe in planting improved seeds, let alone drought tolerant seeds.
Kimotho said the uptake to the seed technology is very slow only at 20% since they launched the company in 2007. But for those farmers who have adopted the technology are inspiring others because their farms are yielding much compared to those using recycled seeds.
Allan Mackenzie a farmer in Kavumbu Masi location, Machakos County Kenya, said with the weather conditions of his area, the drought tolerant seeds have made a big improvement to his yield.
“Imagine all farmer who visited my crop farm the previous growing season have planted the improved drought tolerant seeds just because of the way my crop was, it was really inspiring to many,” said a smiling Mackenzie.
This is one initiative that the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa is advocating and working to build in Africa.
Among others this is one of the big stories that African leaders will be discussing this week in Nairobi Kenya at the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) that starts on 5th to 9thSeptember.
Digital money transfer service WorldRemit has introduced overseas remittances to mobile money accounts in Malawi. Users of the WorldRemit App or website will be able to securely send money transfers to any Airtel Money account in the country. Continue reading WorldRemit Brings Cheaper and Efficient Mobile Money Transfers to Malawi Diaspora
WorldRemit commends restoration of money transfers to Nigeria. Nigerian diaspora to benefit from increased competition in remittance market London, 31 August 2016: WorldRemit, the leading digital remittance service, commends the restoration of money transfers to Nigeria, following the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to approve WorldRemit and other international money transfer operators (IMTOs). Continue reading WorldRemit commends restoration of money transfers to Nigeria
