By Esther Ndhlozi

Mzuzu, August 17, Mana: Members of the general public and business operators who include taxi drivers in Mzuzu have applauded government for putting measures geared at stabilizing fuel availability

The development follows a press briefing which was hosted on Wednesday by Minister of Information and Digitalization who is also Government Spokesperson, Moses Kunkuyu where he disclosed that the National Oil Company of Malawi, government has acquired $50 million (about K52 billion) loan from the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (Badea) for restocking the country’s fuel reserves.

In an interview, one of the taxi operators, Saulos Tembo said that the development will go a long way in addressing transport challenges caused by fuel crisis which has recently rocked the country.

 “Our business was becoming tougher by the day and could not raise profits due to the crisis and we spent most of our time on fuel queues, hence failing to meet the targeted daily amount of money which each of us is supposed to give to our employers besides failing to fend for our families,” said Tembo.

Concurring with Tembo, a farmer, Gift Phiri also commended government for the intervention saying he stopped visiting his field which is in the outskirts of Mzuzu City sometime back due to skyrocketed transport costs.

Speaking during the press briefing, Kunkuyu said government is working tirelessly to resolve the situation crisis.

“We have managed to acquire 7.1 million liters of fuel from outside the country despite forex availability challenges. This fuel will soon be in the country,” Kunkuyu said.

 Kunkuyu said government has explored new mode of getting the fuel into the country, one of which is the use of trains, which he said has proven to be effective.