Malawi to benefit from K906bn Saudi govt development fund for Africa

President Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera is among African leaders whose countries will get a K906 million cheque from the Saudi government for various development projects, a Saudi official announced on Thursday.

President Dr Chakwera was just jetting down in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia when the country’s minister of Finance said it will sign $533 million (about K906 billion at current exchange rate) worth of agreements with African countries, including Malawi on the sidelines of the First Saudi-Africa Summit tomorrow.

Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan said this when he opened the Saudi-Arab-African Economic Conference in the kingdom’s capital, Riyadh.

The African countries will strike muti-billion dollar deals with Saudi Arabia through the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) and Chakwera will sign a $20 million Mangochi-Makanjira Road construction deal with SFD, among others.

Meanwhile, the President landed at King Khalid International Airport earlier today and joined several African leaders already in Riyadh for the summit.

Chakwera said Malawi will use K22.4 billion of the money to finance the construction of the Makanjira road.