By Brian Wasili

Mwanza, February 4, Mana: Mwanza District Council took a learning tour of Lilongwe to tap knowledge and experiences on strategies that has seen Lilongwe District Council a good performer in revenue mobilisation.

Lilongwe District Council Chairperson, Mathias Chiopsanjati, hailed Mwanza District Council for choosing Lilongwe as a learning point among other district councils saying the recognition is an honour.

“This signifies that performance of the Council on revenue collection is outstanding and is visible to other local authorities,” said Chiopsanjati.

The said the Council will keep on exploring other ways of improving revenue mobilisation, citing introduction of e-payment in most of its revenue collecting points.

Lilongwe District Council is one the outstanding councils in the country in local revenue generation such that by December 2024, the Council had already generated K1.2 billion against the projected K1.4 billion.

The Council chairperson disclosed that plans were at an advanced stage to construct more infrastructure such as modern toilets in markets to improve service delivery and local revenue.

Lilongwe District Council also introduced performance driven incentives among its revenue collectors.

Apart from listening to presentations by various council sectors on local revenue mobilisation, the hosts took the visiting team on a tour of market places, shops, lodges and recreational centres among others where Lilongwe District Council collects its revenue.

Mwanza District Council Chairperson, Emmanuel Kapawe, said knowledge gained from the tour will be applied to improve resource mobilisation.

“We will go for strategies that are applicable so that we should improve on local revenue both in short and long term,” said Kapawe.

He said Mwanza District Council mainly depends on fees generated from two major markets namely; Boma and Chipatala.

The Council also introduced border entry fee to improve revenue mobilisation.

“Revenue collection is so far not adequate for staff salaries and for effective service delivery,” said Kapawe. 

During the 2025/2026 budget hearing session in Blantyre, National Local Government Financial Committee hailed Lilongwe District Council for updating its Local Revenue Enhancement Strategic Plan (LRESP)