Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare has underscored the need for active political participation among young women. Director of Gender in the Ministry Mercy Safalao said this in Blantyre during a political empowerment campaign of young women in elections.
Safalao said government had realised the need to empower young women and has always committed to empower young women through various policies and programs.
“We have policies in place that are aimed at empowering young women to take an active role in politics. We want to ensure that the country achieves the 50-50- target in politics between men and women,” said Safalao.
Viwemi Chavula, who is team leader for 50-50- Campaign Management Agency said despite registering an increase in number of female members of Parlianment from 32 to 45 in 2019 and from 53 to 67 female councilors, the average number of young women in politics is below 10.
“Much as we registered an increase in number of female candidates winning on parliamentary and councilor seats in the may 21 tripartite elections, we are not satisfied with the numbers. You may wish to note that out of the women who won in may 21, only two are young women below 35 years,” said Chavula.
One of the youthful female politicians, Carol Mdala who is a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Ward Councilor for Chilaweni in Blantyre Rural East Constituency and also the chairperson for Blantyre District Council said Malawians mustchange their mindset towads women leaders in the country if the 50-50 goals are to be achived.
Mdala told MBC that the road to her success was not easy in the May 21 tripartite elections as she faced verbal insults just because she is young and female. She said if not for her confidence and courage to achieve her ambitions, she could have given up way back.
“The road to my success has been tough and challenging. I could hear my opponents despising with an intention to pull me down,” explained Mdala.
According to Mdala, there are many young women across the country who have the zeal to contribute to the country’s development through politics just like but face challenges such as lack of financial support, societal wrong perception towards young women, verbal and psychological torture.
The development prompted 50-50- Campaign Management Agency in collaboration with other stakeholders held a meeting in Blantyre to reflect on how young women performed in the may 21 elections.
The meeting brought together young women who won during the may 21 tripartite elections and those who did not make it to encourage them not to give up but rise and claim their destiny.
For the first time ever, a Malawian has been shortlisted for the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, run by the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering, which recognizes ambitious African innovators who are developing scalable engineering solutions to local challenges.
The 16-strong shortlist was announced on Thursday in Cape Town, South Africa.
The Malawian, Catherine Chaima developed Cathel, an affordable antibacterial soap made from agricultural waste and and local ingredients using indigenous knowledge.
The daughter of farming parents, Chaima grew up in rural Malawi, where groundnuts, cassava, banana and rice are popular crops.
Cassava peels and groundnut shells, however, pile up around farms as they are not seen as powerful composting material. While banana leaves have many applications, the sheer volume of waste produced by this crop means mounds of dry leaves pile up.
As a chemical engineering student, Chaima focuses on re-purposing waste. During her final year, she turned her attention to the hidden properties of these agricultural by-products. When she discovered that the leaves, shells and peels her parents threw away could be used to produce potassium hydroxide, the idea of Cathel soaps was born.
Cathel soap – named after Catherine and her co-founder Ethel – also uses alternative anti-bacterial ingredients.
Several commercial soaps in Malawi rely on Triclosan, which not only kills harmful bacteria, but also bacteria required to maintain healthy skin. For Cathel, the pair relied on indigenous knowledge to identify natural ingredients such as Moringa, which has anti-bacterial properties as well.
Chaima hopes that the process she uses to make the soaps could establish an industry for agricultural waste to become a valuable commodity in Malawi.
“Cathel started out as a final-year chemical engineering project, but has turned into a product with so much potential to create extra income for farmers, harness indigenous ingredients, and provide Malawian families with affordable, hygienic soap,” she said
This year’s shortlist representing six countries includes the creators of a smart library on wheels, a low-cost digital microscope to speed up cervical cancer diagnosis, bamboo bicycles made from recycled parts, and two innovations made from invasive water hyacinth plants: an animal feed and a cooking fuel.
Launched by the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2014, the annual Africa Prize awards crucial commercialisation support to the innovators who are transforming their local communities. The Prize has a track record of identifying engineering entrepreneurs with significant potential, endorsing those who, with the support of the Prize, have gone on to achieve greater commercial success and social impact.
Alumni of the Prize are projected to impact over three million lives in the next five years and have already created over 1,500 jobs and raised more than $14 million in grants and equity.
A unique package of support will be provided to the shortlisted persons over the next eight months to help them accelerate their businesses.
The benefits of selection include comprehensive and tailored business training, bespoke mentoring, funding and access to the Academy’s network of high profile, experienced engineers and business experts in the UK and across Africa.
First Malawian shortlisted for African Engineering Innovation prize
For the first time ever, a Malawian has been shortlisted for the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, run by the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering, which recognizes ambitious African innovators who are developing scalable engineering solutions to local challenges.
The 16-strong shortlist was announced on Thursday in Cape Town, South Africa.
Chaima: shortlisted for engineering award
The Malawian, Catherine Chaima developed Cathel, an affordable antibacterial soap made from agricultural waste and and local ingredients using indigenous knowledge.
The daughter of farming parents, Chaima grew up in rural Malawi, where groundnuts, cassava, banana and rice are popular crops.
Cassava peels and groundnut shells, however, pile up around farms as they are not seen as powerful composting material. While banana leaves have many applications, the sheer volume of waste produced by this crop means mounds of dry leaves pile up.
As a chemical engineering student, Chaima focuses on re-purposing waste. During her final year, she turned her attention to the hidden properties of these agricultural by-products. When she discovered that the leaves, shells and peels her parents threw away could be used to produce potassium hydroxide, the idea of Cathel soaps was born.
Cathel soap – named after Catherine and her co-founder Ethel – also uses alternative anti-bacterial ingredients.
Several commercial soaps in Malawi rely on Triclosan, which not only kills harmful bacteria, but also bacteria required to maintain healthy skin. For Cathel, the pair relied on indigenous knowledge to identify natural ingredients such as Moringa, which has anti-bacterial properties as well.
Chaima hopes that the process she uses to make the soaps could establish an industry for agricultural waste to become a valuable commodity in Malawi.
“Cathel started out as a final-year chemical engineering project, but has turned into a product with so much potential to create extra income for farmers, harness indigenous ingredients, and provide Malawian families with affordable, hygienic soap,” she said
This year’s shortlist representing six countries includes the creators of a smart library on wheels, a low-cost digital microscope to speed up cervical cancer diagnosis, bamboo bicycles made from recycled parts, and two innovations made from invasive water hyacinth plants: an animal feed and a cooking fuel.
Launched by the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2014, the annual Africa Prize awards crucial commercialisation support to the innovators who are transforming their local communities. The Prize has a track record of identifying engineering entrepreneurs with significant potential, endorsing those who, with the support of the Prize, have gone on to achieve greater commercial success and social impact.
Alumni of the Prize are projected to impact over three million lives in the next five years and have already created over 1,500 jobs and raised more than $14 million in grants and equity.
A unique package of support will be provided to the shortlisted persons over the next eight months to help them accelerate their businesses.
The benefits of selection include comprehensive and tailored business training, bespoke mentoring, funding and access to the Academy’s network of high profile, experienced engineers and business experts in the UK and across Africa.
Following this period of support, four finalists are selected and invited to pitch their improved innovation and business plan to the judges and a live audience. A winner is selected to receive £25,000, and three runners up receive £10,000.
“For six years we have been humbled to work with African entrepreneurs who use engineering to shift how we think about problems, developing disruptive technologies for everything from energy and agriculture to housing, transport and finance,” said Rebecca Enonchong, Africa Prize judge and Cameroonian entrepreneur.
“These are the local entrepreneurs who are transforming Africa, and we are once again honoured to guide and learn from the brightest minds chosen for the Africa Prize shortlist.”
Chaima
The 2020 shortlist includes innovations disrupting essential industries for economic development, such as energy and agriculture. They range from a containerised system that uses burning biomass to preserve crops, a quick and accurate probe to measure humidity in grains, a set of apps that help prevent food waste, a heat storage system that allows rural schools to cook food quickly and easily without firewood, facial recognition software to prevent financial fraud, and an anti-bacterial soap that makes use of discarded crop waste.
This year also features a number of innovations to improve energy access, such as a solar grid management system that helps users manage energy use remotely, and an off-grid power and refrigeration system gets small commercial operations in arid, rural regions operating on par with those in cities.
Recycling is also a theme, as the list also sees a water filtration process that uses waste like bones and coconut shells to provide safe drinking water without expensive equipment, and a set of digital and hardware tools to control the collection, sale and shredding of recyclable plastics.
The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, founded by the Royal Academy of Engineering, is Africa’s biggest prize dedicated to engineering innovation. It awards crucial commercialisation support to ambitious African innovators developing scalable engineering solutions to local challenges, demonstrating the importance of engineering as an enabler of improved quality of life and economic development.
The investigation focusing on illegal forex externalisation in Malawi is still ongoing. It is some eight months after the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) first discovered the ongoing crime. It appears that unscrupulous companies have been illegally moving millions of dollars out of Malawi for years now, all at the expense of the Malawian economy.
Last year alone Malawi, according to RBM governor Dalitso Kabambe, lost $394 million (MK5.69 billion) from illicit forex externalisation.
Kabambe laments this unscrupulous practice, done under the guise of transfer pricing.
Reserve Bank Malawi
He had defined transfer pricing as “setting the price of goods and services sold between controlled or related entities within an enterprise.” Trade pricing in itself is permissible. But it is illicit when used as a means to avoid taxation.
And so the RBM is continuing its search for everyone involved in this malpractice. At the moment a handful of multinational companies are now being investigated for financial crimes. Dr. Grant Kabango, deputy governor of the RBM confirms the ongoing investigation, with the central bank suspecting the companies of under-declaring sales to externalise agricultural products and produce.
In doing so they are also able to externalise forex, and “hide from the Malawian government foreign currency meant for the country.”
A long-standing battle
This investigation is likely to be protracted as Malawi has long been dealing with foreign exchange plunders. In particular, the country is being victimised by illegal forex externalisation, which has been adversely affecting Malawi’s economy for years now. Worse is that both Malawian companies and individuals “masquerading as travellers” are often in on the scheme.
Already the RBM has filed several cases involving illegal forex externalisation. Most notable of these cases is the one against Abdul Rehman of Cotton Ginners Limited, as it involves approximately $20 million (MK15 billion).
The government is also after 11 Chinese firms that allegedly siphoned $5.5 million (MK4 billion) out of the country via illegal forex externalisation.
Even more disheartening, the situation seems to be worsening. Cases of illegal forex externalisation are on the rise, in part due to not enforcing financial laws and the delayed of high-profile prosecutions.
Exacerbating matters is the sheer market size and liquidity of forex. FXCM puts the average daily trading volume at $5 trillion (MK 72 trillion) making it the largest liquid market in the world. This makes regulation extremely difficult and complicated. Consequently, illicit activities still slip through the seams despite the government’s regulatory efforts.
But the RBM is pushing back hard, even partnering with prosecution agencies to better combat illegal forex externalisation.
The RBM’s partner agencies are the Malawi Police Services, the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Director General, the Anti-Corruption Bureau, the Malawi Revenue Authority, the Financial Intelligence Authority, and the National Intelligence Services.
Better than last year
The RBM and its partner agencies are making headway in cracking down on illicit financial activities. Evidence of this improvement is the number of illegal forex externalisation cases already filed.
The situation is certainly better compared to last year, when Lowani Mtonga expressed in an op-ed his disgust at the government’s seeming inaction. The piece urged the government to “prosecute the perpetrators” of financial crimes.
A year later, it is happening. This development bodes well for Malawi, whose economy is continuously being undermined by these illicit activities
A total of 150 Malawian citizens who were staying in South Africa without proper documents have been deported back to Malawi.
Immigration spokesperson at Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe, Martin Ngongolo , said the deportees – 148 men and two women – arrived in the country on Monday.
“We have currently received 148 Malawians that were deported from South Africa and we are expecting another group to jet in,” he said.
Last December about 300 Malawian citizens were deported by South Afrrica and Zimbabwe deported 72 Malawians for being illegal immigrants.
Gondolo advised Malawians to observe immigration regulations in all countries, saying holding a valid passport is not enough but citizens should familiarise themselves with immigration requirements in all countries they are travelling to.
But the Centre for Development of the People (Cedep) executive director Gift Trapence has called for curbing high levels of unemployment in the country which he said was leading cause to an influx of Malawians leaving the country in search of greener pastures.
Trapence has pointed out that many Malawians, especially the youth, are migrating to countries such as South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique to look for employment as they cannot sustain themselves here at home due to various economic hardships.
rapence said the country has a lot of graduates who are just sitting idle because they cannot get employment.
“We need a multi-sectoral approach to addressing unemployment as a country. We need to look at all possible ways and create a permanent national programme that will see to it that our industry is able to give jobs to our youth.
“Our industrial sector is very small and it is failing to meet demands for employment. I have not seen a lot of commitment from our politicians in addressing these challenges. The loan schemes they are advancing such as Malawi Enterprise Development Fund (Medf) are short-lived,” said Trapence:
In its Global Employment Trends for youth 2015, The International Labour Organisation (ILO) recently indicated that job creation for the world’s youth remains an uphill struggle as two out of five economically active youth in most countries including Malawi are unemployed.
The National Statistical Office (NSO) conducted its first ever labour force survey in 2014 and reported that formal unemployment rate in Malawi was at 21 percent.
President Peter Mutharika recently attributed high levels of unemployment in this country to inadequate direct foreign investment. He described the private sector as the engine for growth and development as well as a source of direct revenue and employment.
He promised that his government was putting up measures to ensure that more foreign investors come to Malawi.
According to NSO, the youth constitute 70 percent of the country’s population
He is known as the field Marshall of the ruling DPP party , but Ben Phiri who also happens to be a Minister of local government had a day never to forget in court. At the ongoing Constitutional court , hearing the vote rigging case, lawyers from the the opposition side had a field day over the so called field Marshall. As it never rains but pours , the cabinet minster found himself trending on social media with very funny memes , making fun of his court appearance
What grabbed peoples attention is not the testimony that Ben Phiri was giving , but it was when lawyer Chikoya Silungwe asked Phiri to clarify about his academic qualifications. Ben Phiri holds a Phd , but for so long people have doubted his qualification with rumours rife that he bought the qualification. It was well known to all Malawians that the Phd was awarded by one of the dodgy universities called Cypress International University. This is why it came as a surprise to Malawians when the cabinet minister told the court that his PhD was not from Cypress but Jerusalem Bible College.
Ben Phiri
What was even more shocking was the fact that the minister said his thesis wasn’t about servant leadership as he previously used to tell people but it was a bible related thesis. Lawywer Silungwe asked Phiri to state where he obtained his doctorate degree and in what field . Phiri said it was a biblical degree from Jerusalem Bible College. Silungwe went further to ask Phiri if he has a masters degree of which the minister said yes , an international relations degree from Costa Ford University. He also said he has a bachelors degree in international relations from Atlantic University.
It did not take long before Facebook was awash with people making fun of the minister .Long time critic of Phiri , Allan Ntata had his song going viral with him commenting how surprising it is that a Leadership philosophy degree has all over a sudden changed to a biblical philosophy. MCP secretary general Essenhower Mkaka also had a dig at the cabinet minister over the surprise change of both his thesis and university.
Others have questioned the credibility of Ben Phiri as a witness. There are strong calls for the minister to be prosecuted to perjury as his inconsistencies suggest he has been lying under oath . One commentator Yasin Maoni made a a call that Ben Phiri need to be fired as a cabinet minister for peddling lies in court about his qualifications
