BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-Some senior figures within the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) are reportedly uneasy about the idea of awarding fertiliser supply contracts to businessperson Napoleon Dzombe, citing his perceived political sympathies.
According to party insiders, there are fears that giving a major government contract to Dzombe could indirectly strengthen the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) if the businessman were to support its activities.
“Look at what happened to Mulli Brothers, in the past,” Rosa Mbilizi, a senior DPP member, was eavesdropped saying on a phone. “Some business people believed to be sympathetic to DPP struggled to access government opportunities. We should be careful not to repeat the same situation in reverse.”
The remarks reflect growing internal debate about how government should balance political considerations with national economic needs.
DZOMBE’S FERTILIZER PROJECT
In December 2025, Dzombe announced that he is constructing a fertiliser manufacturing plant in Dowa. He said the facility is expected to produce about 40 tonnes per day and, at full capacity, could meet national demand within roughly five months.
If successful, the plant could help Malawi reduce imports, cut transport costs and ease recurring fertiliser shortages.
However, critics within the ruling party argue that concentrating such a strategic supply in the hands of one perceived MCP supplier could give him excessive influence, both commercially and politically.
GOVERNMENT POSITION
In his recent State of the Nation Address, Peter Mutharika spoke about plans to strengthen local production in areas such as fertilizer processing to save foreign exchange and improve value addition.
He did not specifically mention any arrangement regarding Dzombe’s fertiliser project. So far no government official has visited the project.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
The debate raises a familiar policy dilemma: should procurement decisions be based strictly on capacity and price, or should political implications also matter?
As discussions continue, observers say clarity from government will be important to reassure both investors and the public.
DOWA-(MaraviPost)-The fertilizer manufacturing company under construction in Dowa is set to commence production by April next year, bringing hope to Malawian farmers.
Napoleon Dzombe, owner of Mtalimanja Holdings Limited, said the factory will produce about 40 metric tonnes of fertilizer per hour, enough to meet the country’s demand in just 150 days.
“The installation of manufacturing machines is complete, and construction works are expected to be finished by January 2026,” Dzombe said. The factory aims to ease fertilizer scarcity and reduce import costs.
“Our goal is to ensure Malawian farmers have access to affordable fertilizer, boosting agricultural productivity and food security,” Dzombe added.
The factory’s production capacity will significantly impact Malawi’s agricultural sector, which relies heavily on fertilizer for crop yields.
Malawi requires over 611,000 metric tonnes of fertilizer annually to meet farmers’ needs.
“This is a game-changer for Malawi’s agriculture,” said a local farmer,adding that, “access to affordable fertilizer will increase our yields and improve livelihoods.”
The factory’s completion will also create employment opportunities and stimulate local economic growth.
Mtalimanja Holdings Limited is committed to supporting Malawi’s agricultural development and contributing to the country’s economic growth.
LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Businesswoman and philanthropist Triephornia Mpinganjira has challenged 34 upcoming intrapreneurs to make use of funds given” and change Malawi for the better.
Mpinganjira therefore pledged to continue supporting the youth in knowledge and entrepreneurship to assist in attaining the country’s development aspirations.
She made the remarks in Lilongwe on Friday, August 30, 2024, during the grand finale of her ‘Kuthandiza Omwe Alibe Kuthekera Kupita Patsogolo’ project.
Mpinganjira added that through the initiative the initiative they have awarded MK34 million to 34 young people who submitted different business ideas which will uplift their lives.
“If you have chosen the entrepreneurship path then be focused and strong as it’s not an easy road to breakthroughs. Use the funds for intended projects that improve your welfare, others, and Malawi,” dares Mpinganjira.
She however lauded Credible Investment Limited (CIL) for partnering with her saying “What matters is the zeal to support young people to do better in life. Your support (CIL) has reached two beneficiaries who were not budgeted for”.
Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Youth and Sports Isaac Katopola has hailed Mpinganjira for the effort in supporting the youth.
One of the beneficiaries Hawa Shabir assured of making use of the funds to achieve her dreams of becoming a successful entrepreneur.
Credible Investment Limited partnered with Mpinganjira with MK2 million in the project to reach out to two young entrepreneurs.
Renowned lawyer Wapona Kita and business tycoon Napoleon Dzombe and successful young ICT expert Mayamiko Mkoloma were among the speakers at the event which attracted over 100 delegates.
DOWA-(MaraviPost)-President Lazarus Chakwera on Monday, August 28, 2023, lauded entrepreneur Napoleon Dzombe for the inspirational investment made at a home village that has created jobs for locals.
Chakwera has therefore emphasized the need for the significance of collaborative development partnerships between the private and public sectors.
He was speaking during the official launch of Kalipano Hotel while handing it over to Sunbirds Hotels and Resort for management.
Amidst the grandeur of the resort’s inauguration, Chakwera praised the project as the “actualization of a dream by one of our own,” underscoring its embodiment of progress led by a Malawian.
The President commended Dzombe for his multifaceted contributions across the health, social, agriculture, tourism, and education sectors.
Chakwera further lauded Dzombe’s determination to bridge private and government endeavors, exemplified by the Sunbird Tourism partnership.
The Malawi leader therefore urged private sector players to draw inspiration from Dzombe’s collaborative spirit, fostering a joint approach to social advancement.
Dzombe’s journey, marked by obstacles like bureaucratic hindrances and corruption, resonated with the President’s caution against practices that hinder development.
The President briefly referenced a past scenario where Dzombe lost over MK500 million Malawi to corrupt officials when attempting to construct a modern bus terminal in the city of Lilongwe.
In his remarks, Dzombe felt honored for the country’s leadership presence during the facility launch including Chakwera, Veep Saulos Chilima, former President Joyce Banda, and Speaker Gotani Hara.
Dzombe told the gathering that what has been launched was just a quarter of what is coming ahead.
The grand opening of the Kalipano Hotel aligns with Malawi’s agenda for 2063 of establishing itself as a burgeoning global tourism destination, fostered by collaboration and local initiative.
The facility has also a man-made lake, outstanding hotel rooms for accommodation and conferencing
LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Malawi government officials from departments including the Ministry of Lands, Lilongwe City Council (LCC), and Department of Environmental Affairs defrauded Entrepreneur and philanthropist Napoleon Dzombe MK500 million for setting up a modern bus terminal in the capital Lilongwe.
Eventually, Dzombe abandoned the project as government officials were still demanding more money before the commencement of the project.
Due to frustration, prompted to embark on the Kalipano Hotel project in Dowa District.
Dzombe, the founder of Mtalimanja Holdings told Nation Newspaper that in 2018 his company acquired land and developed concepts for the construction of an international bus terminal in Area 46 in Lilongwe, off the Lilongwe West Bypass Road. The project was estimated to cost US$19 million.
But Dzombe said he abandoned the project after public officers kept on demanding more money to process paperwork which never materialised for a good three years.
“The Malawi Government should be able to support people willing to invest in this country. Last week, I was in Uganda and I learnt that land for an investor is given for free and they also give a 10-year tax holiday.
“If this was the arrangement here, I think we would have more investors in Malawi and this country would not be the same,” worried Dzombe.
He disclosed that after buying land from another investor, whom the government had identified for the project, he was asked to pay MK234 million in development fees.
Dzombe said he paid the amount and had designs done in China for US$50 000 and LCC charged him MK13 million as a scrutiny fee which he duly paid only to be told that the structural drawings and plans needed to be designed locally.
He said he engaged a local consultant who charged MK100 million for the designs which he paid and again handed over the plans to the council.
The current Lilongwe Bus Depot is in a dilapidated state
“For the same plan, one charged MK900 million, another one K200 million and the lowest was K100 million. So, after this, we were allowed to start working on the ground (land) and we deployed heavy equipment to clear the ground.
“But a week after LCC stopped us, saying the scrutiny fee had increased to MK25 million so we needed to pay MK12 million more before we could proceed with our work. At this point, I was frustrated,” worried Dzombe.
He said he had also paid MK6.5 million for a consultant to help with environmental-related papers “which took forever to get approvals from the Environmental Department”.
Dzombe said he did not understand why the government treated him this way for a project that would benefit the whole country.
He said this marked his U-turn on the bus project and opted to build Kalipano Hotel in Dowa which is being managed by Sunbird Tourism plc.
The international bus depot project deal was mooted at the 2016 Malawi Investment Forum where Khato Civils emerged as a prospective investor after signing three memoranda of understanding (MoUs) to construct the Salima–Lilongwe Waterway, to implement a toll-gate project and, also construct the intercity and international bus terminal.
But in 2017, controversy arose after the Ministry of Lands allocated land earmarked for the terminal to another local investor, David Bonongwe contrary to LCC’s plan to have Khato Civils as an investor.
Ministry of Lands, at the time, told The Nation on Sunday that Bonongwe had a more convincing development plan than Khato Civils.
But in a twist of events, Bonongwe of Moni Bus Services sold the land and his concept to Dzombe in 2018 after failing to pay development fees.
The bus terminal, which from the plan will include banks and a shopping mall, is part of Lilongwe Urban Plan in which the council plans to partner with an investor.
LCC’s chief executive officer Macloud Kadammanja and spokesperson Tamara Chafunya failed to respond on the matter when contacted.
On the other hand, Malawi Investment and Trade Centre CEO Paul Khwengwere asked for more time while Minister of Lands Deus Gumba Banda did not pick up calls too.
Meanwhile, Dzombe’s Kalipano Hotel which is currently managed by Sunbird is expected to be officially launched on August 28, 2023, at its base in Dowa district.
DOWA-(MaraviPost)-Napoleon Dzombe is a great man. He is not the incarnation of that 18th Century famous Frenchman, Napoleon Bonaparte. But, even in a different field, he has the same ingenuity as that of the artillery commandeering citizen of France.
His war is different. His military hardware is different. His approach to the wars he fights is different. But his guts and wisdom and purposes aren’t different.
Dzombe isn’t leading a political revolution; he is leading a welfare revolution among his people in Mtalimanja Village in Dowa District.
Dzombe, a simple-looking man, is unlocking the potential of his community by destroying the strongest of the chains that have shackled them to poverty for too long.
Here is his story, as he told it during the ‘Unlocking Your Potential’ campaign being run by the National Bank of Malawi (NBM) plc.
Napoleon Dzombe was born into a family and community that were poor. His life was typical of many children in Malawi, a life of want and adversity, and uncertainty. He grew up in an area that had no hospitals, no bridges, no maize mills, and no good roads.
His primary school was very far, such that the child Napoleon walked a total of 24 miles to and from his nearest school. Regardless, in 1977, he was selected to Dedza Secondary School.
“But my parents did not have fees. So I got help from someone else for my Form 1 school fees,” he recalls.
If lacking school fees was a misfortune, it was also an adversity that began his path to greatness.
He was not going to rely on the generosity of other people for his education, so to raise money for his Form 2 fees, he engaged in a small business. He did not just strike gold; he saw light in much more gold deposits.
“In one month of business, I made far more money than I needed,” he said.
That beat up the path he would take in his life.
“I said to myself: ‘If I have made this much money in just one month of a small effort, how much more can I make if I devote myself fully to business?'” he said.
And so Dzombe dared the odds, possibly to the disbelief of a community that had long believed that young people in the area needed education to get out of poverty. He dropped out of school in the first term in Form Two to concentrate on business.
The journey to a great future had begun.
With earnings from his business, he opened a maize farm in his village which he called ‘Nzeru za Abambo’ Farm.
In time, he diversified into the transport business which also helped drive his businesses to success.
Yet, he kept wondering what had made Europe so successful. Therefore, he took a trip to Sweden to learn. There he discovered how value addition had propelled the European economies to great heights and uplifted lives.
On his return, he ventured into the sawmilling business. He wasn’t selling the timber. He was producing furniture such as desks. It was successful.
His maize farm was still thriving but now instead of selling the maize he was producing, he started processing it into flour and other products.
So far, he had taken his life out of poverty and his business empire was growing.
“So I decided to invest in the community I had come from to see how I can also help improve people’s lives,” he said.
His first initiative to unlock the potential of the community was to turn his Nzeru za Abambo into a community banana plantation.
A visit to Mtalimanja today finds a display of a vast array of Napoleon’s magnanimity and wealth creation initiatives for his people.
What used to be the Nzeru za Abambo maize production field is today an expanse of a promising banana crop owned and managed by the community — under the guidance of the Malawian Napoleon.
To irrigate the farm, he constructed a dam, a project which took him five years to complete.
But this is a multipurpose dam because it is turning the area into a tourism destination of serious consequence.
Overlooking the expansive dam is a magnificent, high-rise tourist infrastructure, the Kalipano Hotel.
“We want to generate revenue through tourism, conferences, and weddings and the people of this village will be earning money from this investment,” said Dzombe.
The plan is to create a complete lakeside experience for visitors as they plan to put boats on the dam and other accomplishments to meet the taste of a waterfront adventurer.
Another outstanding infrastructure in the area is the School for Agriculture for Family Independence (SAFI).
Operational since 2006, SAFI enrolls 40 families from across the country at one single time training them in modern methods of farming.
Here, these 40 families are accommodated in institutional facilities equipped with electricity and piped water.
The institution takes care of their everyday needs during their stay. For their travel to and from the place, SAFI transports them for free.
In 2017, he got villagers from the area to study rice farming in Nkhotakota. In the first year of production, the villagers made K26,000.
The following year, Dzombe supported them with tractors and allocated land to the villagers. They made a profit of K3 million. In 2019, they made a profit of a staggering K25 million.
“They are expecting revenue of K250 million in 2020,” said Dzombe.
Across the country, poor roads and lack of electricity are cited by experts as a serious impediment to the prosperity of rural communities which are the main players in agriculture in Malawi.
For long, Mtalimanja Village has suffered from a lack of electricity and good roads. Dzombe has fixed the problem creating a passage of wealth into the community.
Together with the Mtalimanja people, Dzombe upgraded a 26-kilometer road from the main M1 road, extending it to connect to another tarred road, the Santhe-Kasungu road. The works have included fixing all the bridges in between.
To get electricity to the area, they worked to tap ESCOM power from 20 kilometers away.
“In other areas, people are lucky that they have roads constructed for them and electricity brought to their doors (by the government). Here, we have managed to do this on our own,” said Dzombe.
And the people of Mtalimanja are benefiting. They have moved from grass-thatched houses to modern ones kitted with electricity.
NBM plc Marketing and Corporate Affairs Manager Akossa Hiwa said the ‘Unclock your potential’ campaign has managed to give hope to their customers and the public at large after listening to success stories such as the Napoleon Dzombe story.
“The engagement on Dzombe’s story alone revealed to us that our stakeholders and customers are in awe of how he is singlehandedly working to build his community and to build Malawians across the country through the provision of agricultural skills.”
“Many have been inspired to work on defining a path for themselves and for those around them. This is encouraging as the Unlock Your Potential Campaign was implemented to urge our followers to seek how best they can utilize the resources they have, both physical and mental, to significantly improve their current situation and status,” explained Hiwa.
Dzombe’s enterprises have created jobs for over 1000 villagers.
But he hopes to create more jobs as he invests in value addition by introducing fish ponds and constructing factories for maize, groundnuts, soya beans, and fruit processing.
His plan is this one: “In five years to come, our products from here like maize, groundnuts, rice, and soya beans will be processed here so that they fetch higher prices on the market.”
And he foresees total transformation of the community.
“We will have many more houses with electricity, we will have built schools and constructed good roads and hospitals. This is just to show that when one believes in an idea, everything is possible,” said Dzombe.
In his words, it is retrogressive to fear to step into unchartered territories.
“We should not fear to till untilled lands. It is up to us to withstand our situations and make good out of them. We have to have courage that we can change the face of Malawi. If we have courage we can change our villages to be better places for people to live in,” said Dzombe.
For a man now Group Chairman of Mtalimanja Holdings Limited that has invested US$18 million in a rice milling company in Nkhotakota, Dzombe knows what he is talking about.
He knows how to fight wars. He knows how to assemble the artillery. He fights formidably, methodically. And he wins!
The next edition will cover his presence achievements and inspiration.
LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-In its quest towards social corporate responsibility commitment, the country’s leading telecommunication company Airtel Malawi on Thursday hosted an early Christmas celebration with Mtendere Children Home at Lumbadzi in the central district of Dowa.
The company also donated assorted items to the organization including food stuff (cooking oil, sugar), blankets, school writing materials, and sanitary kits for girls, school bags, fairly used clothes among others.
To spice up the celebration, Airtel excited the children with jumping castles, games, painting and individual gifts.
Airtel Malawi Customer Service Director Sibusiso Nyasulu told Journalists that the companies always want to uplift communities, touch lives and listening to life stories of triumph above adversity.
Nyasulu added that life without giving others with little available is not part of Airtel core business to the society hence the early Christmas celebration.
“Christmas is a celebratory season that needs the spirit of sharing to flourish. There is more happiness in giving than in receiving. We therefore humbled to interact and have fun with the young ones today,” excited Nyasulu.
Mtendere Children Home Grecian Chisema lauded Airtel to timely support with food items, blankets donation saying will go a long way to change lives.
Chisema therefore appealed to other companies, individuals and well-wishers to emulate Airtel gesture as the facility has numerous challenges of accommodating many unprivileged children.
Established in 2005 by Napoleon Dzombe, the facility accommodates 108 children ranging from five years to 16.
The organization has primary and secondary schools which so far produced 14 university graduates since its inception.
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