By Bishop Witmos

Mangochi, January 30, Mana: National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) has wrapped up its 2025/2026 budget review sessions for district, municipal and city councils with a call for the local authorities to take a business unusual approach by attaining financial stability status.

The exercise, which was taking place in Blantyre, took the committee two weeks to scrutinize and validate the budgets of councils and cities, thereby ensuring that they align with national priorities and adhere to principles of effective resource allocation at the local government level.

Speaking during a closing session with Mangochi Municipal Council on Thursday, NLGFC Executive Director Kondwani Santhe urged district, municipal as well as city councils to develop robust strategies for local revenue generation to reduce their dependence on central government funding.

Santhe observed that most councils end up into hospitality industries such as operating rest houses and lodges, but that they do no excel due to poor management.

“Councils are encouraged to venture into businesses for local revenue generation. However, time for owning assets such as rest houses is gone, as it has proved that most councils are not good at hospitality.

“The NLGFC would like to see councils diversifying their revenue streams and that they are exploring innovative ways of generating income. Councils require resources such as natural attractions, agricultural produce as well as human capital to create revenue generation opportunities,” he said.

Santhe also stressed the importance of councils engaging with their local communities to understand their needs and priorities and to involve them in the planning and implementation of revenue-generating initiatives.

NLGFC facilitates fiscal decentralization, financial management as well as development in local government.

In his remarks, Chief Executive Officer for Mangochi Municipal Council, Ernest Kadzokoya, said that during the 2024/2025 fiscal year, the council did well in revenue generation as it collected K440 millon.

Kadzokoya attributed the success to strict enforcement of by-laws, intensification of supervision of revenue centres as well as upward adjustment of various fees and licenses.

“As of December 31, 2024, our council had collected almost K440 million as locally generated revenue, representing 88 percent of the locally generated revenue budget. This is an improvement of 31.1 percent of the previous fiscal year where we collected K335 million.

“During the year, the council graded roads in all wards, including maintenance of drainage for the main road and face-lifting of the main round-about using Municipal Roads Fund and we also upgraded the town road to tarmac with funding from Roads Fund,” Kadzokoya said.  

Kadzokoya said the 2025/2026 budget for Mangochi Municipal is pegged at K1.4 billion.