Economist Chikaonda wants Malawi to quit donor dependency
Malawi’s renowned economist professor Mathews Chikaonda is asking government authorities to put up strong measures that wound see Malawi move away from donor dependence for its economic growth.
In his presentation at the all-inclusive stakeholders’ Conference in Blantyre organized by Public Affairs Committee (PAC) which ended Wednesday, Chikaonda said its high time Malawi should tell all development partners that “we need to have an exit strategy for donor dependency”.
Chikaonda, former finance minister in his presentation titled ‘The Impact of Devaluation’ said although it was good for Malawi to welcome the donors Malawians should know that this will not be forever and that “this is not the answer to Malawi.”
“Look, since independence 48 early ago, we have been still depending on donors, what that tell about us as people? We should craft solutions, means and ways of getting out of that donor dependency to stand own our own”.
He said a good example is that at the moment 60 percent of the country’s budget can be funded by domestic revenues while only 40 percent requires donor aid.
“If we draw up a program to say that after two years, it will only be thirty percent, after that it will only be 10 percent, and so on,” said Chikaonda, group chief executive officer of Press Corporation Limited (PCL), said
Chikaonda the former governor of the Reserve Bank of Malawi said every Malawian has to pay if this is to be achieved.
“We need to expand the taxes. We need the private sector to grow so that there is job creation. No country has reduced poverty without the involvement of the private sector,” he said.
In a communiqué released at the end of the two day meeting, the organization observed that despite the change of leadership politically the challenges facing Malawi in the restoration of the democratic and economic governance are quite colossal to be left to just one sector [politicians] of the Malawian society.
The communiqué that was signed by the chairperson of the meeting Blantyre Catholic Archdiocese Auxilliary Bishop Montfort Stima also said they resolved to lobby for the formation of a group of eminent Malawians to help the president in running the economy of the country.
