By: Andrew Mkonda

Lilongwe, 22 January, Mana: Lilongwe District Council has been commended for making strides in generating MK1.2 billion in local revenue as of December 2024 against a target of MK1.4 billion which was the set mark in the 2024/25 fiscal year which will end March, 2025.

Speaking on Wednesday after engaging officials from Lilongwe District Council at Mount Soche in Blantyre, National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC), Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Local Government and Ministry of Gender officials said strategies that the council is following to collect own generated revenue, such as performance driven incentives to revenue collectors could be emulated by other councils.

“This is inventive and good practice and this is what we would like to be hearing from all councils across the country for the smooth running of the councils. The whole point of decentralization is giving power to the people and you cannot have power if you don’t have your own resources,” said NLGFC Senior Budget Analyst, Patricia Banda.

Banda said the purpose of the budget review session is to assess the council's compliance with recommended budgeting guidelines regarding activity prioritization and prudent resource utilization.

“I am happy that the council [Lilongwe] seems to have complied with the required guidelines except few areas where it needs some amendments,” she said

She also said the session was impressed with Lilongwe’s updated Local Revenue Enhancement Strategic Plan (LRESP) and saying it is an area other Councils could learn from," said Banda.

Lilongwe District Commissioner Dr. Lawford Palani said the council is intending to increase its locally generated revenue in 2025/26 fiscal year by among others opening new markets and expanding the already existing ones.

Palani said the council has already started making strides on its locally generated revenue and very soon the council is intending to start collecting its local generated revenue through e-payment.

Lilongwe District Council has pegged its 2025/26 financial year’s budget at MK35.8 billion which is an increase of 4 percent from current year budget of MK34.4 billion.

Among the major budget lines are Social Cash Transfer Programme pegged at MK10.04 billion, Climate Smart Enhance Public Works Programme MK9.55 billion, Constituency Development Funds MK3.8 billion, Governance to Enable Service Delivery 2.5 billion, Regional Climate Resilient Project MK1.3 billion, Education Sector MK2 billion, Health Sector MK3.9 billion.

Lilongwe has a total projected population of 1, 908,826 people according to National Statistical Office (2018).