Mining & Trade News

Lilongwe based travel agency African Global Travel Tours (AGTT) says it will be coming up with more innovations to promote tourism in Malawi.

AGTT CEO Francis Muleso said this when AGTT hosted a US-based vocal voice singing group, The Temptations, at Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe.

“The country has benefited from this show because as we are talking now, we have people from Zimbabwe, Zambia and other neighboring countries who have come here for the show, and have brought some foreign exchange into Malawi,” said Muleso.

He said his company also organized the show as one way of appreciating the support that it receives from its customers in Malawi and the region.

“We brought The Temptations because we knew that they have a large following in the region so they will bring here fun loving people from Zimbabwe and other Africa countries in so doing bringing forex into Malawi,” Muleso said.

He said in bringing the singers to Malawi, his company has helped to bring Malawi on the tourism map as some of The Temptations membersinformed him that they liked Malawi and are planning to come back with families and friends.

Muleso said his company will continue hosting such events in Malawi as it envisions Malawi with its natural beauty becoming a centre of tourism in the region.

“There is a very big announcement that we will make verysoon possibly in the next four weeks. Another bigger thing is coming, and we shall be doing this more often to promote Malawi,” he said.

AGTT started operating inMalawi in 2016 and, Muleso said, ever since that time, the Company has enjoyed enormous support from its customers.

The Temptations are an American vocal group which released a series of successful singles and albums with Motown Records during the early 1960’s and 1970’s.

 AGTT is a Malawian company but its headquarters is based in South Africa.

Electricity Generation Company (EGENCO) says it has commissioned a new feasibility study on Kammwamba coal fired power plant to update the feasibility study that was done in 2014.

 In an interview with Mining and Trade Review, EGENCO CEO Wiilliam Liabunya said the Company has engaged a German consultant Fitchner to execute the study

 “Kammwamba coal fired plant was given to EGENCO in 2019. It coincided well with the plans that we already had to put up a coal plant. We expect the feasibility study to take about six months, once that is concluded then we will finalize financial arrangements and embark on implementation,” said Liabunya.

 Liabunya said Kamwamba Coal Fired Power Plant is among other ongoing projects such as Kapichira dredging, dredging of the Nkula pond, Tedzani IV, Wovwe expansion, Likoma solar, and Mpatamanga Hydro Plant.

He also said EGENCO is working very hard to ensure that it rehabilitates the existing power stations as well as venture into developing new plants.

Commenting on the challenges that EGENCO is facing in establishing new power sources, Liabunya said every project is unique and consequently has different challenges.

He said: “Apart from issues of financing which are crosscutting, there are really no major challenges.”

“The delay in some of the projects is simply because we need as a public company to follow procedures in every transaction that we undertake, so sometimes these processes take time to complete.”

“What you also need to understand is that power projects unlike building a house take time and needs lots of permits and approvals. Lots of planning involved to get feasibility studies, get environmental permits, implement resettlement plans, negotiate connection and power purchase agreements with off taker, arrange for financing etc.”

Asked on what Malawians should expect in terms of power generation, he said this year they have put in place a number of measures to ensure that they sustain the current improved generation capacity.

Liabunya said: “Coupled to that is the matter of adequate water that has been harvested this year in the lake so that we can use during this dry season. As you may be aware, we now have a new barrage at Liwonde which is fully automated”

“Another important aspect is that we have been able to maintain all our machines, as of today, all our machines are in perfect working condition expect for one at Kapichira whose repairs could not be completed due to travel restrictions due to COVID 19. However, with continued opening of borders we hope to have commissioning engineers and equipment from Germany to be in the country by end of this month or early next month and have the machine back online”.

Recently, local mining experts called on government to consider setting up a coal fired power plant in the northern region in order to utilize locally sourced coal.

Government says it will work hand in hand with seed production company Seed Co. Malawi Limited to scale up the adoption of hybrids and improved seeds by the country’s famers to ensure higher yields.

Malawi lags behind in hybrid adoption by 37% in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region.

Speaking during the first Inaugural Annual Growers Meeting organized by Seed Co, Minister of Agriculture Lobin Lowe applauded Seed Co. as a key stakeholder in agriculture saying the company plays a very important role in achieving food sufficiency in Malawi.

Lowe described hybrid and improved seed as key catalysts to improved yields in Malawi that would help to increase the current production of 1.8MT per hectare to around 5MT per hectare, closing the gap to match the regional average of 5MT per hectare.

He said: “The importance of hybrid seed to food security in Malawi cannot be overemphasized. Hybrids and improved seed are key to improving farmer yields. Unfortunately, hybrid adoption in Malawi currently at 37% lags behind countries in the region.”

“This is the more reason Government has introduced Affordable Input Programme (AIP) where over 4,200,000 farming families will benefit.”

“The development will increase the hybrid adoption rate and it is expected that all things being equal, Malawi will have a bumper harvest.”

Lowe also disclosed that the Government through the Ministry is developing and formulating the Seed Policy and Seed Bill.

He said the bill is being development to curb the proliferation of fake seeds and protect smallholder farmers from exploitation by unscrupulous traders.

“I pledge close working relationship between the Ministry, the Private Sector and Non-Governmental Organization (NGOs) active in the seed sector,” he said.

In his remarks, Seed Co. Managing Director Boyd Luwe said the conference was organized to act as a platform to address questions from people interested in seed multiplication business as well as informing them of what it takes to be awarded a contract in the industry.

He said Seed Co. brought into the conference six powerful presentations which tackled different aspects in the seed multiplication business.

The topics are: Meaning of Winning: -Farmer-Based Seed Multiplication Systems; Seed Production and Certification Systems in Malawi; Implications of Genetic Purity on Quality and Crop Varietal Performance; Unlocking the Hidden Potential of Serenade Soybean Variety; Pure for sure: -Seed Quality Assurance at a Glance; and Cutting-Edge Research: -Amazing Genetics Gains for Climate Smart Agriculture.

He also disclosed that Seed Co. has adopted transformative initiatives to assist farmers to get resources to ensure that their businesses are well capitalized.

Speaking on sidelines of the meeting, a Grower for Seed Co. Linda Goodman from Lisumbwi farm in Mitundu, Lilongwe said the conference helped them to understand some of the aspects that will boost their agribusiness.

Goodman said: “This year’s conference will help us understand some of the things that we were not able to understand and also interact with other farmers nationwide and share ideas about how we can go further in farming.”

“Not only that, the conference will motivate more women to get attracted to farming which is only taken as male’s work, and also taking farming as a business not just for consumption.

The 15-year agribusiness entrepreneur also urged Seed Co. to continue with the meetings saying they will keep them familiar with the new technologies being developed in farming activities.

Seed Co. plans to be hosting the Growers Conference every year.

This year’s conference also marked 80th anniversary of the company in the seed business industry.

Agriculture as the main anchor of Malawi’s economy contributing 30% to the National Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 60% to Malawi’s workforce in sector.

The Directorate of Road Traffic and Safety Services has warned that it will revoke road service permits as well as deregister from its system taxis that are operating as intercity public service vehicles describing the trade as unlawful.

In a press release dated 25 September, 2020, the Directorate also says all drivers found on the wrong shall have “their professional driving permits revoked and subsequent offences suspended or cancelled.”

“The Directorate has noted with dismay that most taxis are operating as intercity public service vehicles which is against the Road Traffic Act (1997) and Road Traffic Regulations (2000). The regulations restrict operation of taxis within the cities or towns.”

The Directorate has also appealed to the travelling l public not to compromise their safety by avoiding the use of these taxis since they operate illegally, exceed the allowable seating capacity, they are fond of over speeding, and their insurance does not cover operation of such vehicles and their passengers.

The vehicles known to be doing this kind of illegal operation include Sientas, Voxys, Noahs, Hondas, Serenas and other similar vehicles.

The influx of taxis in major routes such as Blantyre-Lilongwe and Blantyre-Mzuzu is posing strong market competition to big buses, which are registered to ply these routes.

The Malawi Government says it is keen to revive rail transport as one of the main transport modes for the country.

Spokesperson for Ministry of Transport and Public Works Andrew Mthiko says currently the Government is working closely with the concessionaire Central East African Railways on the rehabilitation of railway transport facilities along the Nacala Corridor including train stations at Nkaya, Balaka, and Mchinji.

“I can also assure Malawians that the idle Limbe-Marka railway line will start functioning soon since rehabilitation and reconstruction works are underway between Limbe in Blantyre and Marka in Nsanje,” Mthiko said.

Malawi has a multi-modal transportation system comprising of road, rail, air and inland water transport. Most of the key infrastructure for the road, rail and inland water transport modes forms part of one or more of the international corridors used for the transportation of international freight including Nacala, Beira, Durban and Dar es Salaam. 

The national rail network covers central and southern parts of the country including the newly built line Nkaya to Kachaso (west) which is 136.5 kilometres long.

The other rail lines include Nkaya to Nayuchi which is a 99km stretch to the Eastern border with Mozambique, Nkaya to Limbe to Makhanga (South) which is 297 km, and Nkaya to Mchinji or Chipata (North and northwest).

The entire route is around 400km which comprises of 12km section between Chipata and Mchinji; 110km between Mchinji and Kanengo; 105.5km between Kanengo and Salima; and 172km section between Salima and Nkaya. The line terminates around 389km from the Tazara line and around 150 km from the Petauke mine in Zambia. The line loading capacity is 18 tonnes between Chipata and Salima, and 15 tonnes per axle between Salima and Nkaya.

Malawi mainly uses road transport which is more expensive that rail and water transport.

The Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Wildlife says the country has lost over MK40-billion in revenue and 35, 000 Malawians have lost their jobs due to the outbreak of the global coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic in the first half of the year 2020.

Speaking in an exclusive interview, Public Relations Officer in the Department of Tourism Sarah Leah Njanji lamented that Covid-19 has affected business opportunities due to cancellation of bookings and travel restrictions which led to a sudden drop in consumer demand of hospitality services.

Njanji said the fall in consumer demand led to an unprecedented fall in international tourism numbers that culminated into revenue decline and loss of jobs.

She said: “The revenue collected in National Parks and Game Reserves has also reduced as a result of reduced patronage.”

“Protection of iconic species and other conservation initiatives are under threat due to loss of livelihoods for communities living close to protected areas.”

“The arts and crafts subsector has also lost business opportunities as they have not been able to sell curios and also the number of people visiting monuments has reduced posing a risk towards conserving and preserving of cultural heritage.”

Meanwhile, the country is in a national tourism month which falls in September every year as designated by the government following the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s (UNWTO) declaration of September 27th as Tourism Day.

UNWTO designated the day on the expense of raising awareness on the role of tourism within the international community and to demonstrate how it affects social, cultural, political and economic values worldwide.

Together with UNWTO, Malawi is celebrating this year’s Tourism Day under the theme of ‘Tourism and Rural development.’

In her remarks on the commemoration, Njanji disclosed that the country will hold no public celebrations for the national tourism month in respect of covid-19 pandemic restrictions.

She said instead, the Government will use all sorts of media platforms to disseminate vital information, and that the Department will be available for tourism related requests.

Njanji said: “Through various forms of media, the Department of Tourism in the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Wildlife has been able to disseminate information about the theme, linking it with the unprecedented time that we are in and also looking at how domestic tourism can be used to spur recovery from the effects that Covid-19 has had to the industry.”

She said though the pandemic has made the year 2020 challenging one to the sector, the outbreak has also offered the Department an opportunity to consider implementing strategies that will ensure a more resilient, more inclusive and more sustainable tourism sector.

Early September, Minister responsible for Finance and Economic Planning Felix Mlusu presented the 2020/2021 fiscal financial budget where he allocated K58.7 billion in the sectors of energy, natural resources, tourism, environment and forestry.

Responding to the development, Njanji hailed the proposed budget saying the allocation is enough to revamp the sector through carrying out budgeted items.

Njanji said the allocation will be redirected toward: increasing domestic tourism promotion with an overall aim of increasing the number of people travelling within the country; trainings and capacity building for enforcement officers in protected areas to help combat wildlife crime; training communities in problem animal control; promotion of culture for tourism purposes; and capacitating arts stakeholders with trainings.

The pandemic also led to the cancellation of this year’s Takulandirani Malawi International Tourism Expo (MITE), a platform that the nation uses to market the country’s tourism products and services. 

The cancellation affected the sector whereas it failed to host buyers and other exhibitors, disrupting market network opportunity between the local operators and international buyers. 

Malawi Stock Exchange listed Sunbird Tourism plc says restrictions on travel and holding of meetings imposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has greatly impacted on its business and the entire hospitality industry in the first half of the year 2020.

Sunbird said this in condensed interim financial statements for the half year period ended June 30, 2020 which was signed by its  Chairman Phillip Madinga and Director Anderson Kulugomba.

“The hospitality industry is one of the worst hit industry from the impact of Covid-19 pandemic.”

“The pandemic has had significant adverse impact on the business, affecting all its segments due to worldwide health guidelines and restrictions which resulted in the reduction of travel, both local and international, and the holding of meetings,” reads the statement.

It says the pandemic has influenced the company’s total revenue to decline from a total of MK9.038 billion of last year to MK6.120 billion this year representing 32%.  

The report says in the total revenue, catering division revenue was amounted to MK454 million representing 39%, lower than the revenue achieved for the same period of MK739 million.

It also says the corporate segment, at 68% of total room nights sold, continued to be the anchor segment followed by conference segment at 16%.

The report reads: “These segments are expected to be the key drivers for the business in the short to medium term. The company is implementing various initiatives to grow other segments such as leisure in order to diversify revenue sources.”

It also laments that pre-election political tensions created bottle necks in the company’s revenue sources following reduction in the activities by customers due to cautions of travelling during the first half of the year.

Meanwhile, the company’s operating costs on administration and other expenses totaled MK5.8 billion, 3.4% higher than same period last year, which is favorable compared with inflation trends.

Finance costs totaled MK289 million which was 181% above last year’s MK103 million, driven by capitalization of completed projects from prior year.

The company also registered loss after tax of MK1.336 billion compared unfavorably to the profit of MK1.197 achieved in the same period in the year 2019.

Subbird projects continued global recession due to the pandemic negatively affecting the hospitality industry.

However, the firm is optimistic for a gradual improvement to the sector following easing of lockdowns in various countries and reopening of borders and airports.

Sunbird says the recovery process will be complemented by the new government’s transformation agenda premised on the three key themes of inclusive and sustainable growth, macroeconomic stability and sound financial management.

Reads the statement: “There are a number of key product improvement plans that have been implemented across the company and some that are currently underway.”

“Construction of a new 42-bedroom beach resort at Sunbird Livingstonia Beach is at an advanced stage and expected to be opened later in the year, while construction of additional 15 rooms at Sunbird Nkopola Lodge is in the final stages and it is expected to be completed in the third quarter of the year,” says the company. It says the Board’s focus remains to continue building a resilient brand by improving service delivery and guest experience through product and infrastructure improvements and intensifying sales and marketing activities to ensure that the group maintains its market leadership in the hospitality industry.

The Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Culture says Malawi has lost billions of kwacha in revenue that could have been realized in the sector due to the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

Public Relations Officer for the Ministry Sarah Leah Njanji tells Mining and Trade Review that games and parks and hoteling subsectors are the worst hit since they mainly depend on international travelers for business.

Njanji explains that over 90% of tourism related operations have experienced a reduction in revenue of between 85 and 100% since February 2020.

“Generally, progress has been slow this year due to Covid-19 pandemic. Travel restrictions and closing of borders in our key source markets led to temporary closure of some local businesses, loss of jobs and also loss of business due to cancellation of bookings,” says Njanji.

She also says cancellation of annual Takulandirani Malawi International Tourism Expo and other mega events has negatively impacted a lot on financial earnings from the sector.

Meanwhile, the Ministry is working on modalities to revive the tourism and hospitality industry which include promotion of domestic tourism.

She says, among other things, the Ministry is using local digital platforms as a way of attracting local tourists.

“The focus now is on recovery but doing so in a responsible manner. This means that all operations in the industry must comply with the necessary health protocols,” she says.

She also says the department is preparing to develop a risk crisis management strategy.

The Ministry of Energy says the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has negatively impacted on progress in the implementation of ongoing Extended Phase 8 of the Malawi Rural Electrification Project (MAREP).

MAREP is being implemented by the Malawi Government with an aim of transforming lives of people living in the rural and semi-urban areas by ensuring increased access to electricity.

Public Relations Officer for the Department of Energy Saidi Banda told Mining & Trade Review that Covid-19 has greatly affected the project as boarder restrictions that countries have imposed to curb the spread of the disease have disrupted supply chains for construction materials.

Banda said the Extended MAREP Phase 8 requires more construction materials following the increased number of sites in the phase but the Department could not manage to acquire the materials due the boarder restrictions.

He said: “In view of the extension, additional materials were procured. However, while the suppliers were in the process of delivering materials, various countries from which the materials were coming from effected lockdowns.”

“This led to a delayed delivery of materials which has affected the completion of construction works for extended MAREP Phase 8.”

“The delay in completion of construction works for extended MAREP Phase 8 has affected subsequent activities such as way leave and compensation; and material audit for the phase.”

Banda also said the covid-19 pandemic has failed the MAREP secretariat study tour and training.

He said the study tour was aimed at learning what other countries did when coming up with Rural Electrification Agencies which the Ministry is intending to establish. 

Banda said the disruption has led to the sluggish progress on the establishment of Rural Electrification Agency. 

“The Ministry carries out local and foreign capacity building training for the MAREP Secretariat which has been hugely affected by the covid-19 pandemic. Secretariat had sent to foreign trainings few officers whose training calendars were appearing before the effecting of lockdowns in the respective countries of training,” Banda said.

In the year 2020, the Ministry of Energy planned a number of activities including; construction of Extended MAREP Phase 8 power lines; MAREP sites impact assessment survey; data collection for formulation of concessions for MAREP sites from Phase 1 to Phase 8; design of high voltage and medium voltage overhead power lines for MAREP Phase 9; survey of overhead power lines routes for MAREP Phase 9 sites; procurement of construction materials for MAREP Phase 9; and procurement of construction contractors for MAREP Phase 9.

The Ministry also planned to conduct: Way leave assessment and Compensation for MAREP Phase 9 sites; construction of Natural Resources College (NRC) warehouse forecourt; procurement of forklifts for MAREP materials stores; connection of low income households to electricity under Ndawala Scheme; conducting study tour for establishment of Rural Electrification Agency.

Only three activities were completed, seven are in progress while the rest are to commence in the last quarter of the year.

Banda said the completed activities include: design of high voltage and medium voltage overhead power lines for MAREP Phase 9; procurement of forklifts for MAREP construction materials storage facilities; and procurement of additional materials under Extended MAREP Phase 8.

The activities in progress include: construction of Extended MAREP Phase 8 power lines; Technical Material Audit for Extended MAREP Phase 8 sites; way leave assessment and compensation for extended MAREP Phase 8 sites; way leave assessment and compensation for MAREP Phase 9 sites; survey of overhead power lines routes for MAREP Phase 9 sites; procurement of construction materials for sites under MAREP Phase 9; and delivery of additional materials under Extended MAREP Phase 8.

The Ministry introduced the Ndawala Scheme to ensure that low income households are connected to electricity.

 “This is a scheme where low income households are given soft loans with no interest to wire their houses. The loan is recovered over time by deducting 40% from the units purchased by a beneficiary,” Banda said.  

Government under MAREP has managed to electrify 1074 centres across the country including 849 in Phase 8. Government policy to achieve 30% of grid extension by year 2030.