Malawi Finance Minister Gwengwe goofed

The Finance minister and Economics Affair, Sosten Gwengwe was goofed at Bingu International Conference Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe during the Pre-budget Consultation as he that there is stated there is no such thing that government signed a 6.8 billion dollar grant with BRIDGIN Foundation signed deal.

In November last year, the State President Lazarus Chakwera signed a US6.8 billion grant with Bridgin Foundation to finance projects that are believed to have the capacity to help Malawi achieve Vision 2063.

The projects when completed were expected to help adress challenges in the agriculture sector, health sector and energy sector, among others.

The projects include the development of power generation facilities with total capacity of one gigawatt and related infrastructure. Construction of Inkosi ya Makosi M’mbelwa University with Hi-Tech Livestock Industrial Center and construction and equipping of a Hi-Tech bioscience and fertilizer manufacturing industrial part at Luanar.

However, making the closing the remarks during the pre-budget consultation, Gwengwe said no one signed the grant with the stated organisation.

“Kulibe anasainira kuti kwabwera ndalama 6.8 billion, that’s just nonsense, the real issues are the ones we are talking about [Budget]. Osati kudzangosewera kuti BRIDGIN foundation, eh chani-chani-chani that’s nonsense, put in aside,” Gwengwe has said.

The minister went on to emphasize that the focus should be on finding way of implementing a deficit free national budget.

Commenting the matter some Malawians describe Tonse alliance Government taking Malawians for Granted.

Innocent Kasepa a Lilongwe based business man said he voted them with trust to change Malawi economy.

“These people are taking us for granted, how can the whole minister saying such thing that he did himself signing the deal, today he is changing statements, I voted this government with the hole to change many Malawians lives but this is not what we are noticing today,” he said.

Luke Kamanga said this is the most useless government ever.

“The most useless government Malawian had never seen before these criminals are trying to trick citizens so. That they can vote them again,”

After signing the grant in November, debate ensued on the $6.8 billion financing deal the Malawi Government after some Social media activists labelled the organisation as scam.

Former minister of Finance and Economic Planning and Development Joseph Mwanamvekha said terms and conditions for such a huge investment needed to be clear. He said what was disturbing about the deal was that the conditions were not known and that going through the foundation’s website as well as other credible sites, it was doubtful the institution has the capacity to provide such funds to Malawi.

He told the Nations, : “In my years of experience in the financial sector as well as in government, proper due diligence is critical, but we seem to have not done this with this institution. This puts the economy at risk because as a country we could end up losing credibility and trust from development partners

Meanwhile, Minister of Information and digitalisation Gospel Kazako who is also a government spokesperson, said he will come back with the full report later.