By George Bulombola

Abu Dhabi-United Arab Emirates, December 7, Mana: Malawi’s Minister of Energy, Ibrahim Matola, Saturday said he is optimistic of the resumption of uninterrupted fuel supply in Malawi.

In an interview with Malawi News Agency, Matola said that fuel supply will be normalized following President Lazarus Chakwera’s invitation to Abu Dhabi by the President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The two leaders are expected to hold bilateral discussions on the supply of petroleum products in Malawi among others.

“President’s visit to UAE will go a long way in materializing a policy shift in fuel procurement; however, we are not abandoning the open tender procurement system as we embark on ‘Government to Government fuel transactions.

“We are going to engage government agents through this Government to Government fuel supply system as the open tender system has a lot of middlemen in between in the product’s supply chain,” said Matola.

He then added that the meeting between the two leaders is expected to unlock fuel supply challenges and bypass some of the middlemen who make the lives of many Malawians difficult by their involvement in the supply chain.

“We are going to bypass current challenges from petroleum refineries, vessels and ports and Malawi being a landlocked country is a victim of a long supply chain in which various players come with additional costs thereby making fuel expensive price.

“From Dar es Salaam to Lilongwe, it is about 1700 kilometres (Km), Beira to Blantyre is almost 900 km and it is 700 km from Nacala to Malawi and such long distances are prone to be abused by middlemen and other players in the system,” he said.

Commenting on the development, Matola said any change in a system comes with challenges but change is inevitable as far as protecting Malawians is concerned, energy being an abler.

“Intermittent supply of fuel has for the past six weeks affected service delivery in various sectors which among others include, health, agriculture and education.

Therefore, we need to do the right thing to address the fuel supply system as both fuel and electric energy is a cross-cutting abler in development,” Matola said.

The ‘Government to Government’ fuel transactions are expected to lead to long-term sustainable fuel supply to Malawi, as the system will waive the intervention of agents in the petroleum business.

Chakwera on Friday urged various investors in UAE to invest in Malawi in various sectors including Agriculture Tourism and Mining (ATM).