The prodigy in Joseph Mwanamvekha
Born six decades ago, precisely on 19th October, 1964, Joseph Mwanamvekha is a veteran politician-cum-economist. He has served in various portfolios as a Cabinet Minister, and as well, in numerous decision-making positions in a number of companies and financial institutions. Mwanamvekha is also Member of Parliament (MP) for Chiradzulu South constituency.
In a nutshell, Mwanamvekha became the first Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Continental Discount House (CDH) in the year 1998. Later, he joined the then government-owned Malawi Savings Bank (MSB) between the years of 2007 and 2009.
Besides the mentioned companies, he has also worked at Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM), Malawi Investment Promotion Agency (MIPA), Lever Brothers and Financial Corporation of Malawi, among others.
In the year 2014 when Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) returned in government under the leadership of Professor Peter Mutharika, Mwanamvekha made it in the first cabinet as Minister of Trade and Industry hence his political mileage.
Mwanamvekha was trusted again with another task in the same cabinet thus in the year 2018, this time around as Minister of Agriculture and one year later, he was appointed Finance Minister.
Good wine needs no bush as the saying goes, but Mwanamvekha’s achievements cannot go unappreciated. He proved to be all result-oriented and as well a go-getter in all the positions he had worked.
As Minister of Finance, he managed to win back donor support which had frozen due to cashgate during Joyce Banda’s administration, while during his tenure of office as Minister of Trade and Industry, he initiated the idea of Buy Malawi strategy; a concept that aimed at encouraging Malawians to be trusting locally-made products hence stimulating economic growth.
At Reserve Bank of Malawi, Mwanamvekha was instrumental in creation of Money and Capital Markets which is currently called Financial Markets Operations. The department is responsible for analysing financial markets in the country.
And as a Member of Parliament (MP), Mwanamvekha continues to work tooth and nail much as developing his area is concerned. Since his election in 2014, Chiradzulu-South constituency has witnessed various developments, among others construction of primary and secondary school blocks, teachers’ houses, bridges, health centers, boreholes and markets. He also constructed a technical college and a functioning telecenter. Mwanamvekha, too, supports the less-privileged leaners in various schools through his 10 million kwacha initiative called Joseph Mwanamvekha Foundation.
Recognised as a very disciplined politician, Mwanamvekha is currently DPP’s spokesperson on Finance and Economic Affairs in Parliament.
