Opinion, Politics

Is Reverend Chakwera demonstrating true servant leadership?

Maravi Post Author

……….Listen to the cry of poor Malawians


Chakwera inspecting road project

By Burnett Munthali

One of the promises Reverend Lazarus Chakwera made to Malawians was servant leadership. This article looks at the President and servant leadership today, three years after winning fresh presidential election which took place in. 2020.

Failing To Deliver Own Promises

Servant leadership is a leadership philosophy built on the belief that the most effective leaders strive to serve others, rather than accrue power or take control. The aforementioned others can include citizens and the nation at large.

The most prominent servant leadership characteristics are:

Valuing People

Servant leaders value people for who they are, not just for what they give to the nation

Valuing people means recognizing their capabilities, developing their skills and enriching their professional and human qualities.

It is especially important to put in the extra effort to value those who challenge you the most. When you can shift your mindset towards valuing people, you will see the results: increased productivity, positive morale boosts and better teamwork, just to mention a few.

The President does not value the people of this country any more. There are so many examples that can be given. Cabinet appointments, procurement procedures being broken by government, implementation of AIP , to mention but just a few.

Humility

Humility simply is the freedom from pride or arrogance : the quality or state of being humble

Humility is an attitude of spiritual modesty that comes from understanding our place in the larger order of things. It entails not taking our desires, successes, or failings too seriously.

To try to cultivate humility, you may want to try one or more of these activities:

• Spending time listening to others.

• Practicing mindfulness, and focus on the present.

• Being grateful for what you have.

• Asking for help when you need it.

• Seeking feedback from others on a regular basis.

• Reviewing your actions against the language of pride.

Our President doesn’t practice any of the above activities. All he does is kneeling down and praying. No action on the ground then how are Malawians going to reach Canaan? They will just perish in the desert where nothing grows.

Servant leaders do not promote themselves; they put other people first.

A servant leader may aim to share power with others and encourage the development and growth of others. This trait can extend to listening to followers carefully to better understand their needs, but it also involves leaders holding themselves and others accountable for their words and actions.

While traditional leadership is focused on helping an organization thrive, servant leaders put the needs of their people first. They focus on developing individuals who perform their best. Examples of servant leaders are Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mother Theresa.

We cannot put Chakwera among servant leaders. He puts the needs of his people last.

False leaders think that people need to be controlled; that you need to force them to do something.

Leadership is the art of getting someone to do something you want done because he wants to do it. False leaders destroy people by attempting to control them.

A true leader is always willing to have open and honest conversations with their people. Being honest establishes a sense of trust with the people, which promotes respect and a willingness to follow your lead. Citizens feel valued when they know that you take the time to communicate with them and tell them the truth.

The President is not pen. He is dishonest in many of his speeches. What he says today will be done in the opposite way by himself so to speak.

A list of examples is long. One of them is when the President fired Sam Kandodo, he went round to the sane fired minister and apologized that it wasn’t his decision but he was misled by people.

The second example is when he announced that he had stopped delegating his Vice because of corruption allegations. Just two days later or so he started delegating the Vice President until now.

Listening

There are some key techniques you can use to develop your active listening skills:
Pay attention.
Show that you’re listening.
Provide feedback.
Defer judgment.
Respond appropriately.

Unfortunately, our President doesn’t have listening skills either. He does not provide feedback on many occasions when people expect him to do so. Hence, on many occasions Malawians are kept in suspense and they speculate their views without his feedback.

Trust

Trust is the assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.

To trust means to rely on another person because you feel safe with them and have confidence that they will not hurt or violate you. Trust is the foundation of relationships because it allows you to be vulnerable and open up to the person without having to defensively protect yourself.

Malawians trusted and relied on Chakwera because they felt safe with with his team and ideologies and had confidence that Tonse Alliance not hurt or violate them. That trust is the foundation from which Malawians have found themselves swimming in a sewage of economic challenges because they allowed themselves to be vulnerable and victims of an incompetent government without having to defend or develop themselves. Everyone is drowning into a hot boiling pot of hardships.

Malawians trusted and relied on Chakwera than anyone else to do the right thing. They believed in the President’s integrity and eloquence in public speaking against the previous regime, to the extent that the people put themselves on the line, at some risk to themselves.

Trust is essential to an effective government, because it provides a sense of safety.

We trust people, the findings hinted, because it rewards one of the brain’s pleasure-seeking centers, making us predisposed to this phenomenon. “… it’s in our genes and our childhood learning — and by and large it’s a survival mechanism that has served our species well.

It’s unfortunate Malawians are blaming themselves today for trusting this leadership which they spoke about so highly that they were angels.

Malawians have struggled with fertilizer corruption whose transaction was done with a butchery who doesn’t even have chicken offals for sale in the UK, 14 truckloads of maize being stolen and sold to Tanzania in broad daylight, lack of foreign exchange in the country which has affected all businesses, extravagant government spending, continued electricity outages even as you read this story, the never ending fuel shortages in our filling stations countrywide, the never ending travels of our President in the middle of his own austerity measures which the one who made them keeps breaking them.

This leadership is a complete failure and disappointment.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are those of the author not necessarily of The Maravi Post or Editor

Education, Malawi

Chakwera’s Tonse Alliance leadership crisis hit UNIMA as academic calendar vigils rage on

Maravi Post Reporter
Tent pitched by University of Malawi Students in an academic calendar vigil

ZOMBA-(MaraviPost)-As national demonstrations are all over the major cities of the country over the lack of leadership in President Lazarus Chakwera’s Tonse Alliance, the leadership crisis seems to be spreading like a pandemic to other agents of the government.

In this case, the University of Malawi (UNIMA), as the students are staging massive vigils which have started today, effectively putting all academic business to a standstill.  

“The bone of contention is an academic calendar. The University management in their wisdom released an academic calendar to the effect that we will be having one semester in one year instead of two semesters per year. Having one semester per year means that the students will be taking 8 years to complete a four-year degree programme and the students can’t imagine that.

The students feel this is unreasonable and outrageous and they want the calendar to change,” said Humble Bondo, President of the University of Malawi Students body in a live lunch bulletin interview with Timveni Radio.

In a memo to the administration released by the student body which has gone viral on social media, the students narrated that they had an emergency assembly at the Great Hall yesterday where the general membership of the student body called the University of Malawi Students Association (UNIMASA) resolved to go for an indefinite vigil, which will be called off until management changes the calendar.

“We write to communicate that the general membership of the UNIMASA resolved that we go for a vigil effective tomorrow morning which will be called off when the retrogressive, outrageous, repugnant, and unreasonable current academic calendar which management so insensitively and indifferently imposed on us is amended,” reads the letter in part. 

Concludes the letter, “Students are on a daily basis being haunted by the horrible prospect of being subjected to a five or six-months holiday effectively doing one semester in one academic year. They wonder, which proper university does that?

“Their voice was unequivocal, their resolve unanimous and as their leaders, their word which is hereby conveyed to you is our final and binding command”.

Meanwhile, the students are playing all manner of games at the main library quadrangle, singing and dancing and they have blocked the road from the Academic Freedom Arc such that no vehicles save for motorcyclists are having access to the institution.

The police having bombarded the students with teargas in the last demonstration appear to have learnt their lessons allowing the students, who are not violent or breaking any property, to proceed with the vigils until the school authorities resolve this long overdue issue.

Meanwhile, the university management is still burying its head in the sand like an ostrich, not knowing what to do to resolve the impasse.

Education, Malawi, Opinion

My Take On It: Malawi must provide equitable access to education for children with disabilities

Janet Karim
Children with disabilities have rights for quality education

It is no longer enough to have content knowledge or the love for teaching. (Parker J. Palmer “The Courage to Teach.” 2007)

SIXTY-TWO years ago, my brother Robert was first removed by the education system due to his severe multiple disabilities. As my father was serving a one-year detention sentence in Khami Rhodesia, my mom was at work, neighbourhood bullies bundled him into a wheel barrel and cycled around the rose garden.

They then tipped the wheel barrel leading to Robert bumping his head on a stone. My sister and I watched crying (she was eight and I was six years old). He died three months later.

Recently my son became blind following a malaria attack and a batch of bad chloroquine was administered. My parents, recalling what had happened to Robert, began to look for schools that catered for learners with disabilities.

Fortunately, my son’s health was restored (elements for another article). Suffice it to say, while medical science has made leaps since my elder brother’s needles removal from school and death, the treatment and handling by governments around the world and Malawi, communities, and schools, can sometimes be less than desirable, fair, or sufficient.

For clarity, the term living with disabilities shall stand for “a person living with a physical or mental condition that limits a person’s movements, senses, or activities.” Such persons that are in school have challenges that are physical, mental, intellectual and learning disorders such as hearing, blindness, dyslexia, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), neuromuscular disease, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, muscular dystrophy, speech and language, and many other behavioural disorders.

Sadly, with a Malawi average class size of 40 to 60 learners with one teacher in the room, what guarantees are there that all the fish remain in the sea of learning? In short, is Malawi doing enough to ensure that all Malawi school-age children attain access and are retained in the education system to enable them to reach their potential and contribute to national development? These were among the questions filed to the Ministry of Women, Child Welfare and Social Services, Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Education and Science and Technology.

The following is the response from the Ministry of Education and Science and Technology:

1.   What is the population of schoolchildren in Malawi?

The total population is 4,956,667 for Basic/Primary Education of which 162, 174 are those with special educational needs (EMIS 2021).

a)    How many of them have Physical Disabilities?

There are 11, 459 learners with disabilities.

b)   How many of them have mental emotional and behaviour disorders (part of (c) below)

c)    How many of them have learning or intellectual disabilities?

There is a total of 89,357 learners with Learning disabilities. This includes those with intellectual disabilities and emotional and behavioural disorders. In most cases, these learners have multiple challenges hence the inclusion into the same category.

2.   Of these student populations living with disabilities, what are the retention ratios?

a)    How many finish primary education?

Eighty percent of learners with Learning disabilities finish primary education and transition to secondary school. However, those with severe disabilities, struggle with education due to multiple challenges, and some end up being referred for vocational training.

b)   How many finish secondary school education?

Seventy percent of the student enrolment usually attain certification.

c)    How many graduate with a college education?

The Education Management Information System (EMIS) 2021 indicates that there are 131 students with special educational needs in various Malawi universities and colleges. However, there is no segregated data in terms of impairments.

3.   What is the average number of learners in the classroom?

On average, there are ten learners with special educational needs in a class.

4.   What is the average number of teachers in Malawi classrooms?

On average, there is one teacher in a special education class with not more than ten learners while for an inclusive (or general education) class with sixty students, there are two teachers to support learning and attainment of the content.

5.   Has the Ministry of Education ever considered/explored adding a second or third teacher (teacher assistant) in the classroom as a means of classroom management?

The sector values the need to have enough teachers to support learning, especially individual support to learners with special educational needs. But it is not possible currently due to limited resources. However, as a solution, we have trained 296 mainstream teachers and 403 parents and school administrators in the Universal Design to Learning (UDL) approach to teaching an inclusive classroom. Through this approach, families of children with disabilities are to support their children in reading and writing both at school and at home.

6.   Does the Ministry employ special education teachers?

The education sector recruits specialist education teachers and currently, there are 891 in total distributed across all education levels.

a)    Do teachers in Malawi develop adaptive instruction materials to accommodate the needs of students with mental, intellectual, or learning disorders?

Specialist teachers adapt teaching and learning materials to accommodate individual learning needs. After a thorough assessment of the individual needs of the students, then individualized learning materials are developed.

7.   Do government schools employ occupational or career counsellors to support the in-school and post-school arising issues?

The current establishments in our schools do not have such positions. However, where necessary, referrals are made to either Social Welfare Office or Malawi Council for the Handicapped (MACOHA) for support.

8.   Do government schools stay connected/trace their former scholars?

Tracking of students is done to understand life after school and how they are sustaining themselves and if either needs support in terms of skills development. Wherever necessary, proper referrals are done to relevant stakeholders for additional support such as TEVETA for technical skills.

9.   What is the percentage of persons with disabilities/disorders being kept/incarcerated after getting in trouble with the Law?

Currently, there is no data on such learners/students in that scenario.

The Malawi education system has indeed come a long way; however, there is still more that can be done to cater for students with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities including intellectual and learning disorders. It is a slowcoach movement that there are 891 special education teachers servicing 89,357 learners with various forms of disabilities.

1.   The multi-sector interventions with collaborations of the Education, Women and Child Welfare, and Health ministries should be enhanced, this is with the best interest of the child being at the forefront.

2.   Communities should be sensitized to work together to ensure that children are sent to and remain in schools. They must be encouraged to continue working together to foster cooperation so that every child in their community get fair and equitable access to education.

3.   The Malawi government and stakeholders should embark on boosting the education sector by training unemployed youth and street vendors with an MCSE for teacher assistant positions. These would be the second or third adults in the classroom that have 60+ students, 5-8 percent of whom are persons living with disabilities.

The Education Ministry could develop six-week training courses

The instructional assistants should be set on bi-monthly pay cycles to enable them to manage their new earning cycles.

The teacher assistants will work with the students with disabilities so that they get extra instruction with fewer students. This can be done on a one-to-one or group basis.

Malawi must follow through with these suggestions so that it lives up to its national development commitments; among them is to ensure that persons living with disabilities have equitable access to the education system in the country.

Business, Development

Africa Investment Forum: Lusophone Compact continues to drive private sector investment in Africa

Maravi Post Reporter

The Lusophone Compact is one of many successes that have emerged from the innovative Africa Investment Forum. The compact is a financing platform that provides risk mitigation, financing products and technical assistance to accelerate development of the private sector in Africa’s Portuguese-speaking countries.

The African Development Bank, the government of Portugal and six Portuguese speaking African countries—Angola, Cabo Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Principe—signed a memorandum of understanding  during the inaugural Africa Investment Forum Market Days event in November 2018.

The African Development Bank president, Dr Akinwumi A. Adesina, says the partnership was “designed with one simple, overarching goal: more private sector and public private partnership investments in Africa’s Portuguese-speaking countries.”

The compact was conceived in 2017 during a visit by Adesina to Lisbon, where he urged Portugal’s participation in driving private sector development in Africa’s Portuguese-speaking countries. 

Since its establishment, the compact’s partners have worked to address differences in size and structure of member economies. Angola, for instance, is Africa’s tenth largest economy. Sao Tome and Principe is the continent’s smallest, but it is one with a traditionally heavy reliance on agriculture. 

The Africa Investment Forum continues to be a conduit for investment into these economies. The Africa Investment Forum Market Days 2019 event featured six projects with a value of over $700 million, which were eligible for Lusophone Compact financing.

One project at that event—though ineligible for compact financing, was the African Development Bank-led structuring of the largest ever single foreign direct investment in Africa. This was the Mozambique Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) Area 1 Project, valued at over $24 billion.  The African Development Bank contributed $400 million to the project.

Two years ago, the Mozambique LNG Area 1 Project and the African Development Bank jointly received Project Finance Magazine’s Multilateral Deal of the Year 2020 Award. 

Since its establishment, the compact has continued to grow in scope.  In September 2022, during a business and investment forum organized as part of the 5th Luso-Mozambican Summit in Maputo, the African Development Bank and the Portuguese government signed a guarantee agreement for €400 million. Under the agreement, Portugal is providing guarantees of up to €400 million exclusively to African Development Bank-financed projects approved under the arrangement.

As African countries currently face challenging conditions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s war in Ukraine and climate change, the Africa Investment Forum is prioritizing the areas of transport, health, energy, infrastructure, and food security. These are the areas the forum finds necessary to dwell on to drive recovery.

This year’s Market Days event will also promote opportunities in industries where Africa has a comparative advantage, notably music, film and textiles. In addition, it will promote transactions that offer considerable benefit to women.

The investment transactions will be sourced from the investment pipelines of the eight founding partners of the platform. These partners are the African Development Bank, Africa 50; the Africa Finance Corporation; the African Export-Import Bank; the Development Bank of Southern Africa; the Trade and Development Bank; the European Investment Bank; and the Islamic Development Bank.

Source African Development Bank Group

Lifestyle

Maracana, a different sort of football from Ivory Coast

Maravi Post Reporter

A tiny goal, no goalkeeper and a field the size of a handball court: in Côte d’Ivoire, some dream of seeing the popular maracana, a kind of six-a-side soccer born on campuses some 50 years ago, become an Olympic sport.

On an empty field on the banks of Abidjan’s Ebrié Lagoon, youngsters dribble in the sand, two tires serving as an improvised goal.

The small size of the field and the goal forces the players to combine technique and precision, making maracana, named after the famous stadium in Rio de Janeiro, an ideal training ground for eleven-a-side soccer.

For the youngest members of the Xenox de Treichville club, a “traditional” amateur soccer team in this neighborhood of Abidjan, maracana training is a must every week.

“When you want to teach a child to play soccer, the basis for me is the maracana,” says Adama Ira, who coaches a youth team at Xenox.

“The kids work more on conservation and pressing techniques. When the child is used to bear this pressure, the big field has no secret for him,” adds club president Seydou Badjan Traoré.

While it is impossible to date the invention of maracana with precision, experts of this popular sport believe that the rules were born in the 1970s on the campuses of Côte d’Ivoire.

At the time, students had difficulty gathering enough classmates and having suitable fields to play soccer.

“A discipline apart”

From this constraint were born singular rules: “Maracana is played six against six, without a goalkeeper and on a field with dimensions similar to those of handball” summarizes Charlemagne Bleu, president of the International Federation of this sport.

In the stands of the multipurpose hall of the Treichville Sports Park, the president proudly observes his national team training.

At the end of September in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire won for the eighth time – in nine editions – the Mara’CAN, the African Cup of Nations of maracana.

For Charlemagne Bleu, who works for greater recognition of the discipline, the stakes are high.

“Maracana is not soccer, it is a discipline apart. Our goal is to make it an Olympic discipline,” he said.

According to him, 72 countries on four continents have a federation of this discipline.

Another particularity: it is a discipline that gives pride of place to old hands.

At the Mara’CAN, Africa’s flagship competition, players must be between 35 and 45 years old, an age often synonymous with retirement in soccer.

“The young people (15-34 years old) have their national maracana championship, but generally they remain more attracted to soccer. The seniors are more numerous because they can’t play soccer anymore so they turn to maracana,” explains Charlemagne Bleu.

Some high-level footballers, such as Issouf Koné, 40 years old, are extending their careers.

“Like many of my teammates I played professional soccer at a high level, so the conversion was not too difficult. We plunged back into the maracana so as not to lose the thread of sport and especially soccer” explains the one who played his fourth Mara’CAN with the Ivorian national team.

“Today to be a professional in soccer, it has become so difficult that I think that maracana is a platform that could help many young people” he adds.

Source: Africanews

Business, Regional

Elon Musk completes Twitter takeover in $44bn deal

Maravi Post Reporter

Chief financial officer Ned Segal, and the firm’s top legal and policy executive, Vijaya Gadde, are leaving alongside Mr Agrawal, according to US media reports.

– –

The completion of the deal brings to an end months of legal wrangling, but the deal has prompted questions over the platform’s future direction.

The CEO of electric car maker Tesla Inc has said he wants to prevent the platform from becoming an echo chamber for hate and division.

He also wants to “defeat” spam bots on Twitter and make the algorithms that determine how content is presented to its users publicly available.

– –

<

p data-testid=”paragraph-3″>Elon Musk has also tried to calm employee fears that major layoffs are coming and assured advertisers that his past criticism of Twitter’s content moderation rules would not harm its appeal.

Source: Africa Feeds

Regional

Tanzania: Water rationing begins due to drought

Maravi Post Reporter
– –

Tanzanian authorities have started rationing water in the economic capital Dar es Salaam due to prevailing drought.

The rationing which started on Thursday was after water levels dropped in its main source, the Ruvu River, dried up.

Residents in the city have been struggling to access water and would now be without running water for 24 hours on alternate days.

The Dar es Salaam Water and Sanitation Authority (DAWASA) said in a statement that “The schedule will be updated weekly depending on how the change in weather will increase or decrease water levels.”

According to water officials water supply from the Ruvu River has dropped from 466 million litres a day to about 300 million litres a day, according to water officials.

– –

The city of 5.5 million residents consumes about 500 million litres a day.

“We are all aware that most areas experienced poor rains last season and the current season has been delayed,” Dar es Salaam governor Amos Makalla had said recently adding that “Everyone should understand that this is beyond the control of the government.”

There are low rainfalls across East Africa with meteorologists warning that the prolonged dry spell will continue.

Four failing rainy seasons since late 2020 have caused the worst drought in at least 40 years, killing millions of livestock, destroying crops and plunging parts of East Africa.

– –

Why the inside of your car is filthier than a toilet seat

Source: Africafeeds.com

Source: Africa Feeds

Business, Development

Côte d'Ivoire: Road users eagerly anticipate relief as African Development Bank financed ‘4th Abidjan Bridge’ nears completion

Maravi Post Reporter

This majestic structure, laid out on the right flank of the Attécoubé commune in central Abidjan, is gradually taking shape and its future users can now see it from a good distance. The “fourth bridge” of the Ivorian economic capital, currently under construction, is more than halfway complete, barely three years after its 2018 launch.  When completed, the bridge should ease traffic congestion around the western suburb of Yopougon, the largest community in Côte d’Ivoire, with roughly two million inhabitants.

Amadou Konaté, an intra-city cab driver and resident of Yopougon, regularly glimpses at the uncompleted structure whenever he drives through the suburb. “Getting out of Yopougon is often a nightmare,” he says. Whenever the main road (the northern highway) jams with traffic, the day starts badly because you can lose at least two hours getting out in the morning, and almost as much when returning in the evening.

“Once the fourth bridge is complete, I don’t think we will give the authorities time to inaugurate it. We will drive on it right away,” says Konaté, eager to take a less congested route.

Mathurin Agnimel is a civil servant. He leaves home incredibly early to reach his workplace in the Plateau business district. He says: “If I want to be at work on time, I must leave Yopougon at 5:30 a.m. That is the only time one can avoid traffic jams. I arrive at 6:15 a.m. at most to start work at 7:30 a.m. Suppose I leave the neighborhood at 6:00 or 6:30 a.m. I will certainly arrive here at 8:30 a.m. or even 9:00 a.m.”

Agnimel emphasizes, “We will have enormous relief once the project is complete. It will be much easier for civil servants to reach Plateau and traders to reach the Adjamé community. I would even say it will be a shortcut for accessing other suburbs.”

The African Development Bank is financing the project with CFAF 155.80 billion ($263.7 million). Building the “4th bridge” in Abidjan is part of a comprehensive project to strengthen transport infrastructure, to decongest the city.

After a slowdown in the pace of work due to Covid-19 disruptions, construction is now progressing steadily, with plans to hand over the completed bridge by the end of 2022 at the latest.

“The project is 62% complete. Some 800 meters of the bridge over the lagoon have been laid out of a target of 1.4 kilometers. And, taking into account some new adjustments to be made right up to the fire station in Adjamé, the bridge will finally extend over a distance of 2.4 kilometers,” explains Serge Paterne Keugongo, head of the Structures Unit of the Road Management Agency.

The scope of works on the “4th bridge” has been modified to include a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system as part of the Abidjan urban mobility project, funded by the World Bank. The first 600-meter segment of the bridge was modified from 2×3 lanes to 2×4 lanes to dedicate one lane in each direction to BRT. On the Adjamé side, the second part of the structure, initially planned as a 2×2 lane highway over 800 meters, will be widened to 2×3 lanes. The other works entail the construction of a 2×3 lane roadway between the end of the Boribana interchange and Indénié stretching 950 meters.

“There has been a significant improvement in the construction of the infrastructure as a whole, especially in the area of road infrastructure where good implementation rates have been recorded,” says Philippe Munyaruyenzi, project manager at the African Development Bank.

In addition to decongesting traffic, the project will facilitate access, improve neighborhoods’ sanitation, and help create about 100,000 jobs.

The African Development Bank co-financed the Abidjan Urban Transport Project with $629.49 million, or 74% of the total project cost. The project comprises the construction of six interchanges, 88 kilometers of expressways, and the renovation of 89 intersections. Other co-financiers are the Ivorian Government (17%), the Japanese International Cooperation Agency, JICA (8%) and the Global Environment Facility (1%).
Source African Development Bank Group

Lifestyle

Uganda’s health ministry assures Ebola virus outbreak under control

Maravi Post Reporter

Uganda has reported 14 confirmed cases of Ebola in the greater Kampala region, the country’s health minister said Monday but sought to assure anxious residents that the situation in the capital was under control.

So far, the death toll across the country from the Ebola epidemic declared in late September has climbed to 44, according to World Health Organisation figures issued last week.

Uganda’s health ministry meanwhile says there have been 90 confirmed cases overall and 28 deaths.

Health Minister Ruth Jane Aceng told AFP there had been 14 confirmed cases in the Kampala area in the past 48 hours, including nine who were contacts of a fatality from Kassanda, one of two central districts at the heart of the outbreak.

Of the nine, she said those infected included seven family members from Masanafu, a densely populated slum area in Kampala which lies near the Kasubi royal tombs, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and not far from two of Uganda’s two main private universities.

President Yoweri Museveni earlier this month ordered Kassanda and Mubende, the epicentre of the outbreak, to be put under lockdown, imposing a travel ban, a curfew and the closure of public places.

But Aceng told AFP Monday: “The situation in Kampala is still under control and (there is) no need to restrict people’s movements.”

– ‘Disease is in our midst’ –

Residents of the capital, a city of about 1.5 million people bordering Lake Victoria, said they were anxious.

“It is getting scarier now that Kampala is recording Ebola cases,” said Rebecca Nanyonga, a 27-year-old mother of two.

“The government has not done much to sensitise Kampala residents on Ebola,” she said. “Parties and music concerts have still held the disease yet is in our midst.”

Ebola is spread through bodily fluids, with common symptoms being fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhoea, and combatted through time-honoured ways of tracing, containing and quarantining. Outbreaks are difficult to manage, especially in urban environments.

Uganda’s last recorded fatality from a previous Ebola outbreak was in 2019.

The particular strain now circulating in Uganda is known as the Sudan Ebola virus, for which there is currently no vaccine.

WHO has said that clinical trials could start within weeks on drugs to combat the Sudan strain.

The Ebola crisis follows the Covid-19 pandemic, which knocked the landlocked country’s economy hard.

“I had relaxed when Covid-19 cases went down. I am now putting back restrictions including visitors to my home,” said Ronald Kibwika, a 45-year-old Kampala businessman.

According to WHO figures, Uganda had more than 169,200 Covid cases and 3,630 deaths.

“We are at (the) mercy of God if Ebola cases rise in Kampala, because most people don’t take health precautions, and health services are still poor,” said Kampala businesswoman Anita Kwikiriza, 31.

Additional sources • AFP

Source: Africanews

Business, Malawi

Malawi Central bank raises policy rate to 18%: Tough times for borrowers

Lloyd M’bwana
Reserve Bank of Malawi

LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The country’s central bank, Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) through Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has raised the Policy Rate from 14 percent to 18 percent amid economic crisis.

This means citizens tend to borrow money from commercial banks and other financial institutions must brace for tough times ahead.

In press statement on Thursday, October 27, 2022 made available to The Maravi Post, MPC says the bank has kept the Lombard rate at 20 basis points above the Policy rate and the Liquidity Reserve Requirement (LRR) ratio on both domestic and foreign currency denominated deposits.

According to MPC, the decision was deemed necessary to restore price stability, which is essential for reviving and sustaining high economic growth.

“Monetary Policy Committee Raises the Policy Rate to 18.0 Percent The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), at its meeting held on 25th and 26th October 2022, decided to raise the Policy rate by 400 basis points to 18.0 percent.

“Meanwhile, the Committee decided to maintain the Lombard rate at 20 basis points above the Policy rate and the Liquidity Reserve Requirement (LRR) ratio on both domestic and foreign currency denominated deposits at 3.75 percent,” reads part of the MPC statement.

According to the committee, the global economic outlook remains gloomy, characterised by weak growth and persistently high inflation due to lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.

Below is part of MPC statement:

In the October 2022 World Economic Outlook (WEO), the IMF projects a slowdown in real GDP growth from 6.0 percent in 2021 to 3.2 percent in 2022 and further down to 2.7 percent in 2023. The 2023
growth forecast represents a downward revision from 2.9 percent reported in the July 2022 WEO Update.

Regarding forecasts for the country groupings vis-à-vis the July 2022 projections, the October 2022 WEO has revised downwards the growth for advanced economies by 0.1 percentage points to 2.4 percent in 2022, and 0.3 percentage points to 1.1 percent in 2023.

The emerging and developing economies are projected to register a combined real economic growth of 3.7 percent in both 2022 and 2023, representing an upward revision of 0.1 percentage points for the former, but a reduction of 0.2 percentage points for the latter.

In the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region, real economic growth is projected at 3.6 percent in 2022 and 3.7 percent in 2023, downward revisions of 0.2 percentage points and 0.3 percentage points, respectively.

The weaker growth outlook reflectsthe impact of a slowdown in the trading partners’ growth, tighter financial and monetary conditions as well as negative shifts in terms of trade.

Developments in Global Commodity Prices
International commodity prices for 2022Q3 slightly moderated from the ruling prices of 2022Q2, but remained more elevated than the prevailing prices during the similar period of 2021. For instance, Brent crude oil price dropped to an average of US$99.23 per barrel in 2022Q3, from US$112.74 per barrel in the preceding quarter and compared to an average of US$73.0 per barrel for 2021Q3.

Indications are that Brent crude oil prices could ease to US$85.52 per barrel in 2023, following a backdrop of recession-induced weak demand in some countries.

In the market for fertilisers, the average price of urea declined to US$627.43 per metric tonne in 2022Q3 from US$774.2 per metric tonne in 2022Q2, while that of Di-ammonium Phosphate (DAP) dropped to US$761.8 per metric tonne from US$860.1 per metric tonne during the same period.

The decrease was on account of sluggish demand following the closure of spring planting and fertilizer application seasons in most countries.

However, at the 2022Q3 level, both urea and DAP prices were substantially higher than their respective 2021Q3 prices of US$435.71 per metric tonne and US$620.0 per metric tonne. Generally, the current prices of most fertilizers remain considerably higher than those of 2021 due to sustained supply-chain disruptions which were caused by the COVIDinduced imbalances, and exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine war.

Domestic Economic Outlook
Domestic real economic activity was estimated to grow by 1.7 percent in 2022,from 4.2 percent in 2021, before picking up to 2.6 percent in 2023.

The slowdown is on account of a number of factors including unfavourable rainfall pattern during the 2021/22 season which affected agricultural production, intermittent electricity power supply, and the impact of the Russia-Ukraine manifesting through high commodity prices.

Meanwhile, the protracted power supply disruptions and fuel shortages, in addition to the prevailing high inflation which is constraining consumer demand, may weigh on the growth prospects.

Developments in Merchandise Trade
Merchandise trade is estimated to have yielded a deficit of US$417.9 million (K434.2 billion) in 2022Q3, from a deficit of US$252.2 million (K216.7 billion) recorded in 2022Q2 and a deficit of US$409.4 million (K337.0 billion) for 2021Q3.

The deteriorating trade balance was explained by a larger growth in imports of US$382.8 million to US$803.2 million (K832.3 billion) than the increase in exports of US$217.1 million to US$385.3 million (K398.1 billion) during 2022Q3.

The rise in exports was driven by tobacco, tea and coffee, and pulses and oil seeds, while the growth in imports was driven by fertilisers as the economy heads into the growing season.

Exchange Rate Developments
Foreign exchange supply-demand imbalances persisted in the domestic market, resulting in further weakening of the kwacha. Specifically, the kwacha US dollar TT exchange rate lost only 0.04 percent (43 tambala) and closed 2022Q3 at MWK1,033.7944 per US dollar.

However, kwacha gains were noted against the rest of Malawi’s major trading partners’ currencies (that is, the British pound, the euro, and the South African rand) during the same period. This followed the US
dollar gains against these currencies owing to recent decisions by the Federal Reserve Board to tighten the stance of monetary policy.

Meanwhile, the Bureaux US dollar cash exchange rate lost 7.69 percent (MWK96.96) during 2022Q3 and
closed the quarter at MWK1,357.8750 per US dollar.

Domestic Inflation Projections
Inflation pressures continue to heighten, as evidenced by the upsurge in the average headline inflation to 25.3 percent in 2022Q3 from 19.4 percent in 2022Q2. Looking ahead, the delayed pass-through of past increases in food and energy prices from global commodity markets to domestic consumer prices could
sustain high inflation for some time.

Consequently, the 2022 annual average inflation is projected to rise to 21.5 percent from the outturn of 9.3 percent registered in 2021. In 2023, headline inflation is projected to rise further to an
average of 21.8 percent.

MPC Raises the Policy Rate to 18.0 Percent
The MPC decided to raise the Policy rate by 400 basis points to 18.0 percent. Further, the Committee maintained the Lombard rate at 20 basis points above the Policy rate and the LRR ratio on both domestic and foreign currency denominated deposits at 3.75 percent.

In taking this decision, the Committee noted that high inflation could frustrate the country’s economic recovery process while also eroding purchasing power of households. In the absence of measures to contain inflation, rising prices will continue to diminish the welfare of households.

The MPC therefore considered expeditious tightening of monetary policy stance as further delays could risk entrenching inflation expectations.

Exit mobile version