Chaponda adds chorus to Mutharika ‘praising singing’ in House: Salutes Mwanamvekha for ‘pro-poor budget’

Member of Parliament (MP) for Mulanje West Constituency, George Chaponda added a chorus to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators singing praise of  President Peter Mutharika when contributing to the 2019/20 budget statement in Parliament, saying signs that Malawi will develop beyond recognition in his tenure are showing.

Making his contribution to the budget statement presented by Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Joseph Mwanamvekha, Chaponda a former agriculture ministers told the House that Mutharika assured the nation that by the time he leaves office in 2024, this country will not be the same.

“By that, he meant that poverty will be drastically reduced and Malawi will fairy compare to some of the developed countries,” said Chaponda.

He said: “The vision of President Muthatika has started showing a pointer in this year’s budget ably presented by no other than the Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development on 9th September 2019 entitled Inclusive Growth and Economic Empowerment, the Future We Want.”

Chaponda describe the the 2019/20 budget as pro-poor.

“It is important to note that globally, pro-poor, according to the World Bank and other international organizations is the term used to refer to policies, programmes and budgets that directly target poor people through economic growth all aimed at reducing poverty.

“This budget is also as we know, ensuring debt sustainability as well as economic empowerment. Unlike in the past, now we find that there is a loan scheme for university students and this implies that the government has ably considered that education is power,” said Chaponda.

He also thanked  Mwanamvekha – the government’s purse keeper – for including the issue of building 250 secondary schools  in the budget , saying is looking forward to having one or two secondary schools constructed in his constituency.

“My only concern, Honourable Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development is that in the past, we did not do very well in terms of construction of girls’ hostels mainly due to being let down by the contractors.  I hope that this time, we can come out with mechanisms to speed up and monitor the construction of these secondary schools,” he said.

He commended the the construction of additional primary schools in the 2019/2020 Budget.

“I, therefore, look forward to having at least two primary schools constructed in my constituency,” he said.

The Mulanje South West legislator also said he was pleased that there is “lot of monies” which have been set aside for roads construction.

“I look forward to having two roads in my area from Chonde to MsikawaNjala and also from Chonde to Mkando completed.”

He said looking at the overall picture of the budget,  “people of Mulanje South West are so satisfied because all the programmes which we started before, like the Decent and Affordable Housing Subsidy Programme and the construction of community colleges, will be continuing.

“I am looking forward to having a community college in my constituency because this will bring to an end the issue of unskilled labour leaving this country and suffer in other countries like South Africa and so on.”

Apart from praising President Mutharika, Chaponda also saluted, Minister of Finance, Mwanamvekha for a perfect start at Treasury,  “mwayamba bwino, continue doing the good job.”

Mwanamvekha last month presented his maiden full budget whose nominal value in terms of total expenditure has been pegged at K1.7 trillion, representing 27.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Out of the total planned expenditure, K1.3 trillion, which is 20.6 percent of GDP, is under recurrent expenditure while K437.9 billion (representing 7.0 percent of GDP) is provided for the development budget.

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