Malawi debt worrying, says Centre for Social Concern

Centre for Social Concern (CFSC) says it is concerned with the  plight of the poor hence keeping a critical eye on the domestic and foreign debt.

Director for Centre for Social Concern, Fr James Ngahy lobby MPs

Director for Centre for Social Concern, Fr James Ngahy said this in Lilongwe  during a presentation of Malawi Indebtedness finding to legislators.

He said the study, which seeks to empower people to end poverty shows that government is borriwng heavily, both locally and internationally which impats negativelu on the poor.

One of the key recommendations was that the citizenry should be able to see direct and immediate benefit of the loans that Government gets, instead of seeing critical amenities continuing to deteriorate as available resources go to non-productive sectors.

In many cases the government is found borrowing to pay off previous debts, especially in domestic borrowing.

“We are trying to see on how we can empower the people and get rid of poverty as we see the debt as a burden to the poor because they sweat a lot and yet they don’t benefit much,” explained Ngahy.

Ngahy pointed out the significance for the engagement of Parliamentarians during the presentations saying when they go to discuss on the debt they should also consider the poor.

“Whatever budget is given, it should benefit the poor not just people in positions like themselves and other notable people, the parliamentarians must take a big role because they represent the poor,” he said.

Chairperson for budget and Finance committee, Sosten Gwengwe said government is aware of this noting that it is really bad hence the need to find tangible solutions in dealing with these issues for the country to move forward.

“Perhaps parliament should start thinking of tightening some laws that guide approval of these loans, only important loans should be approved by two thirds majority in parliament on external debt,” said Gwengwe.

He described the move as a menace, suggesting that every budget should come up with its projection revenue expenditure saying there would be some sort of financing which is like a deficit.

“Some domestic borrowing and government authorization to borrow domestically through budget financing aspect is a devil, you would find that its budget is overblown the time we come for budget review,” he observed.

The Malawi indebtedness study findings revealed the debt management policy was not yet approved by cabinet until 2018.

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