By Patience Longwe

Lilongwe June 6, Mana: Select Financial Services (SFS) Limited says its newly opened branch in Lilongwe will ease financial solutions accessibility and empower Malawians in the country.

Speaking during the opening ceremony in Lilongwe on Wednesday, Board Chairperson for SFS, Terence Nsamala, said the new branch represents a symbolic dedication to uplift Malawians financially.

"By providing access to financial services, we are not only offering loans and savings accounts, but also investing in the dreams, ambitions and the future of our clients. Our goal is to empower entrepreneurship, uplift communities and drive sustainable economic growth," he said.

Nsamala said SFS is committed to providing personalized and innovative financial solutions tailored to the unique needs of each client.

Board Member for Malawi Microfinance Network (MMN), Robert Kapyepye, said the launch will foster development of microfinance industry.

"The importance of microfinance industry to the economic development of the country cannot be over emphasized. Microfinance service providers are playing a pivotal role in government’s drive to extend financial services to underserved populations.

"Today's launch accords an opportunity to appreciate and take stock of what the microfinance sector and, in particular, what SFS has done and achieved over the years having obtained an operating license in Malawi by offering affordable and innovative products and friendly services to the Malawi population," he said.

SFS Limited, which has three branches, operates 28 satellite sites across the country. A fourth branch is expected to be opened in Zomba in July.

By Andrew Mkonda in Seoul, Korea

Seoul, June 6, Mana: Diaspora community, especially the youth, have been urged to contribute to Malawi’s socio-economic development.

Speaking Wednesday evening in Seoul, Korea Minister of Information and Digitalization, Moses Kunkuyu, said time has come for Malawian youths to avoid wasting their precious time, energy and resources on things that will not in any way benefit the country.

Kunkuyu thanked the Malawian youths living in Korea for raising constructive ideas to Vice President, Saulos Chilima, on how the country can borrow a leaf from Korea on issues such as trade, education and transport.

“As government, we need constructive ideas that can contribute to the development of our country. We have wasted much of our time in the past on just blaming one another, while our neighbouring counties are developing. We need to change our mindset,” he said.

Kunkuyu assured the diaspora community in Korea of government’s commitment to developing the country through the Agriculture, Mining and Tourism (ATM) strategy.

Representative of the diaspora community in Korea, Gracious Chirambo, assured government that youths in Korea will always contribute positively so that the country develop the way Korea did in few years.

“It is our wish that any knowledge and skills we are gaining here should benefit our country in one way or the other,” he said.

Most Malawians living in Korea are students.

By Collings Kalivute and Wanangwa Tembo

Kasungu, June 5, Mana: For decades, Malawi's economy has been heavily dependent on agriculture activities with over 80 percent of the country's population involved in subsistence farming and pockets of commercial farming existing here and there.

However, poor farming activities coupled with changing climatic patterns have weightily impacted the sector with farmers registering unprecedented low yields while dependence on chemical fertilisers has risen.

Japhet Chilembwe, 38, from Chisamba village in the area of Senior Chief Kaomba in Kasungu bears testimony to the sad reality that there has been an exponential dwindling of crop harvest in recent years.

“In the recent years, I have not harvested enough to adequately support my family. The soils are infertile and fertilisers are expensive,” he says.

Chilembwe says he now understands that climate change is real and that faming approaches must change if the majority rural population that depends on farming is to survive.

Equally, Fales Ng’oma of Sub-Traditional Authority (STA) Ndume in the district has seen the bluntness of the changing climatic patterns.

She says efforts towards restoration must be taken seriously in the face of shrinking crop harvest.

“We must stop living in denial. Instead, we need to change our mindset towards approaches to farming if we are to start harvesting bumper yields as was the case in the past years.

“This time the soils are no longer fertile and the rains have changed their pattern. In the end most of us are food insecure because we failed to harvest enough despite the efforts we made in our gardens,” Ng’oma says.

Last year, both Ng’oma and Chilembwe were among the crew of lead farmers on a learning visit to Chinkuntha Farm in Dowa courtesy of Jesuits Center for Ecology and Development (JCED) under its three year Tasintha Mlimi project.

This visit marked the turning point for the two farmers as they learnt modern approaches to farming that are now proving game changers for their lives.

“The visit was an eye opener because I learnt a lot about modern agro-ecological farming approaches which I am now implementing.

“With technical expertise from JCED I now have an acre orchard; I’m also into bee keeping and able to harvest a lot through the use of modern ways of farming using organic fertiliser that uses locally available resources like urine and trash,” Chilembwe says.

Chilembwe’s orchard has 200 banana, 60 pawpaw, 35 mango and 30 orange trees.

“I also have a personal forest of 800 bluegum trees. Besides, I rear pigs and chickens which help me with manure for my farm.

“I want to increase the farm and increase production. With more training and extension advice, I am poised to make it big,” he says. 

While expressing his gratitude to JCED, Chilembwe laments the fast drying up of rivers and a low water table in his area saying it is a big setback to his ambitions.

“The challenge is that I use a water-cane to water the trees in the orchard. With the numbers I have given you, you can see that it’s not an easy task,” he says.

On her part, Ng’oma says following the learning visit, she, as a champion lead farmer, introduced three women groups aimed at empowering women into modern and sustainable ways of agriculture.

“As you know women are vulnerable when it comes to financial issues hence I decided to establish these groups to empower and mentor my fellow women with modern and sustainable ways of farming to curb the challenges we face.

“We have banana plantations as a group and we are also extending the knowledge to our respective homes,” Ng'oma says.

Ndaona Kanguwo, a member of Talandira Women Group says the agro-ecology approach to farming has helped her to chart paths that would help the family graduate out of financial quagmire and improve their nutritional status.

Just like Chilembwe, she laments the water woes in the area as a big challenge for her.

“The nearest water point is two kilometres from the garden. So it’s a challenge.

“As an individual, I have 36 banana trees that need at least 20 litres of water each per day. At our site as a group we have 160 banana trees and you can imagine how taxing the watering exercise is,” explained Kanguwo.

Kanguwo calls upon well-wishers to help them with a solar powered water system to ease their watering of crops.

Group Village Head Kakhumbi, a long time tobacco farmer said he has decided to quit the cultivation of the green gold, opting to embrace modern and sustainable ways of farming where he said he can make money on a small piece of land while conserving the environment.  

“I have planted bananas, mangoes, oranges and pawpaw which will give me money at frequent intervals than tobacco which is seasonal. This is my pension,” he says.

Funded by Misean Cara and Germany Weitweit to the tune of K414 million, Tasintha Mlimi (Transforming Farming) aims at building and strengthening the resilience and adaptive capacity of farmers through climate smart agriculture techniques, agro-ecology, ecosystems restoration and provision of sustainable livelihoods in the low income areas of Kasungu.

The four year project, running from 2023 to 2026 also aims to improve livelihoods opportunities for the vulnerable farming households by promoting diversified sources of income

Officer for the project, Mathews Phwandaphwanda says the initiative follows key issues identified in Kasungu District Development Plan of 2017 to 2022.

“So this initiative is a response to such concerns such as low productivity due to land degradation, unstable weather conditions and climate variability including erratic rainfall, strong winds, hail storms and dry spells,

“There is also massive deforestation due to tobacco farming, poor farming practices and increased demand for farm land,” he says.

Phwandaphwanda also points out poor market linkages and low value addition interventions among the farmers, poor diversification of livelihoods sources, low environmental awareness and loss of fertility due to conventional farming practices promoted overtime.

“We also want to see enhancement in the provision of ecosystem services through restoration of ecosystems and catchment areas.

“Besides, we also aim to achieve improved integration of pro-poor and gender inclusive policies in national climate and development frameworks,” he says.  

Specifically, the project targets 1, 500 households as direct beneficiaries with at least 75 percent women and youths in STAs Ndume, Chisazima, and Suza in Chipala Extension Planning Area.

As part of the project activities, there is provision extension services through farmers who are model farmers and have ability to influence others to adopt intervention techniques.

Through the project, farmers are organised in farmer field schools where they learn their farming practices by doing and sharing experiences.

Phwandaphwanda says JCED has been witnessing continued threat to food security and nutrition deficiencies, low income, extreme poverty, land degradation, and loss of biodiversity.

“These problems are coming out as a result of limited agriculture production, post-production capacities and poor understanding of indigenous food systems.

“There is also poor knowledge on the value of local food systems which is leading to loss of some nutritious crops and biodiversity,” he says.

He says there is limited diversification of production and income with the majority of smallholders relying on single subsistence or cash crops, mostly maize and tobacco, increasing vulnerability to shocks including those related to climate change.

He adds: “Lack of access to climate information related to agriculture and extension advisory services has led to lack in capacity of farmers in strategies that respond to the extreme climatic changes caused by climate change.

“Some farmers have completely shifted to inorganic/chemical-based modes of farming that have had a negative impact on the regenerative capacity of their land.”

JCED is a social and sustainable development work of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) of the Southern Africa Province and is engaged in resilience building, adaptation and climate justice advocacy targeting those most affected and vulnerable in rural and marginalised communities.

By George Mponda

Mzuzu, June 5, Mana: Chairperson for Karonga Main Market, Godwin Ghambi, Wednesday  said that garbage which has piled up at the market premises is compromising market users’ health.

In an interview, Ghambi said traders and customers are forced to bear stench emanating from the waste which is scattered around the market.

“This issue has been aggravated by the council’s negligence. We have been approaching council authorities on this issue but our concerns have been falling on deaf ears. 

The smell is unbearable creating potential environment for break out of diseases such as Cholera. The waste attracts flies which eventually land on fresh vegetables, fish and meat,” said Ghambi.

District Environmental Officer for Karonga District Council, Khumbo Mbeye said the council has transport challenges in waste collection.

"Currently, we are using old and borrowed vehicles which breakdown almost every week. We have a provisional solid waste dumpsite at Katili but there is need for a functional waste collection vehicle and a modern landfill dump site,” Mbeye said.

"However, market users should keep up the clean-up campaign momentum and enforce waste management regulations to keep all premises in the district clean,” he added.

He has since has since assured market users that the council is doing everything possible to the waste removed.

"Keeping the district clean and litter free is our priority. We apologize to everyone for the development and we assure them that we are doing our best to maintain quality refuse collection services throughout the district,” he said.

By Sylvester Kumwenda

Dowa, June 5, Mana: The department of nutrition has said it is important to have vibrant structures that can respond to nutrition emergencies during disasters in order to mitigate cases of nutrition related deficiencies as disasters happen.

Nutrition Officer in the department of nutrition, Pamela Alice Jumbe made the remarks on Tuesday on the sidelines of a training aimed at orienting Dowa District Nutrition Coordination Committee (DNCC) on nutrition emergency response.

Jumbe said DNCCs, which are at the core of nutrition related activities at district level, usually, face challenges on how they can respond to nutrition challenges whenever an emergency happens.

"For this reason, we are orienting the DNCC members on how they can better respond to nutrition in emergencies, whether it is to do with infant and young child feeding, required nutrition interventions, and also how they can coordinate better with other sectors so that our response should be diverse," she said.

Jumbe observed that the last similar orientation took place in 2015, hence it was high time to train the committees considering the recent disasters the country has faced.

She said a recent survey has shown that there is an increase in cases of malnutrition, mostly because of cyclones Freddy, Annah, and other emergencies which recently hit Malawi.

"So we are trying to build capacity so that even if emergencies happen, the DNCC members can intensify their response so that we will reduce cases of malnutrition," she said.

She said after the training, which was financed by Momentum, the DNCC members are also expected to orient local structures like the Area Nutrition Coordinating Committees and Village Nutrition Coordinating Committees.

In his remarks, Principal Nutrition and HIV Officer for Dowa, Noel Chikumbu said the training comes at the right time especially after the district was hit with flash floods last in 2023, which also needed emergency response to nutrition issues.

"There was a gap because our nutrition cluster was not that active. We have had flash floods in Traditional Authorities Mponela and Dzoole which caught us unawares, and needed immediate response in various areas including nutrition.

"So this training will capacitate the DNCC to be able to respond, through the district nutrition cluster, to various nutrition emergencies emanating from disasters that can affect our district," said Chikumbu.

By Chisomo Kambandanga

Nkhata Bay, June 5, Mana: Nkhata Bay District Commissioner (DC), Rodgers Newa has expressed satisfaction on how 2024 Junior Certificate of Education (JCE) examinations have started in the district.

Newa said this in an interview, Tuesday after visiting a number of examination centers including Mpamba and Matete Community Day Secondary Schools (CDSS), and Nkhata Bay Boys Secondary School to appreciate the progress of examinations.

He said; "My first impression is that we have started well. So far we have not seen or recorded any observable incident. The students are quite keen on the examinations, supervisors are all around, security is okay and distribution of papers was properly done yesterday.”

“Of late we have seen the impressive work by the Malawi National Examinations Board (MANEB) in ensuring that security for the examinations is tightened.

“That is why as a district we are also following the same footsteps in intensifying monitoring throughout the period candidates are sitting for the examinations to have zero malpractice which in the end gives the examinations credibility,” Newa said.

He also commended the increased number of female candidates sitting for the examinations and attributed it to continued efforts by government and all stakeholders in the fight for the girl child to remain in school.

“Government has put in place policies that support the girl child to complete education. These policies have now started bearing fruits as witnessed by the increased number of female candidates sitting for the examinations,” he said.

163, 950 candidates registered for 2024 JCE examinations across the country of which 84, 226 are female and 79, 724 are male.