Malawi’s President Mutharika to address nation on first anniversary in office

Malawi’s President Peter Mutharika will address the nation on state broadcaster Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) this evening.

The speech comes as Mutharika marks one year in office today. He was sworn in on 4 October 2025 after winning the September 2025 election.

His address follows an assessment by Nation Publications Limited, which gave his government an overall score of 62.2%, or “Satisfactory”, from a panel of independent experts.

In an accompanying editorial, the Nation on Sunday said  Mutharika’s government had “fairly restored and steadied the basic machinery of Statehood” after inheriting a broken economy from the previous administration of Lazarus Chakwera.

The panel scored social services highest at 72.5%, with health at 85%. The paper also noted that maize prices have fallen by more than half. Governance scored 63.3%, which the paper linked to renewed respect for judicial independence and the rule of law.

The economy scored lowest, at 54.3%. The paper pointed to high commercial bank lending rates, persistent power outages, fuel queues returning in the past two weeks and inconclusive talks with the International Monetary Fund.

It also said the Anti-Corruption Bureau was struggling to hire a substantive director general.

The editorial urged the government to restructure national debt, create an enabling environment for private investment and publish savings from its austerity measures.

It concluded: “The honeymoon is officially over; the real work must now begin.”