Mulli, Chipiku, ETG, Afriventure top list of approved fertiliser suppliers

ETG Inputs Limited, Afriventure Blantyre Limited, Malawi Fertilizer Company and Worldwide Wholesalers are topping the chart on the companies awarded contract to supply farm inputs under the maiden Tonse Alliance government’s  Affordable Input Programme (AIP).

This is according to the letter the Director General of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA), Elias Hausi, has written to the Smallholder Farmers Fertilizer Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM).

The letter, which Nyasa Times has in its possession, shows that ETG Inputs Limited and Afriventure Blantyre Limited have been given 30, 000 metric tonnes each and they are expected to get K9 billion each.

Dalitso General Suppliers and General Dealers will supply 7,000  metric tonnes of UREA and another 7,000 metric tonnes of NPK for which it will cart home K4.5 billion.

Chipiku Stores has been awarded to supply a combined 14,000 tonnage and will get K4.2 billion, followed by Worldwide Wholesalers and Malawi Fertilizer Company, which have been assigned 12,000 each and will receive K3.6 billion each.

Mulli Brothers Limited comes fourth on the ladder and has been awarded to supply 10, 000 metric tonnes for which they will get K3 billion.

The implementation of the AIP has generated anger and disappointment majority of Malawians who think they have been short-changed on the promises the Tonse administration made during the campaign prior to the fresh presidential election.

Throughout the campaign period, President Lazarus Chakwera and his Second In Command, Saulos Klaus Chilima, pledged to deliver a universal fertilizer subsidy.

But Mlusu,  in delivering a budget statement in parliament, pledged that the Affordable Inputs Programme [AIP] will reach out to 4.2 million farm families

“In the 2020/2021 financial year, government will implement the Affordable Inputs Programme where all the 4.2 million farm families will be provided with cheap farm inputs.

“This, Madam Speaker, is not far from being a universal subsidy program assuming an average family size of four people, which gives approximately 16.8 million people that will be covered under this programme out of the 17.6 million people in Malawi. In this regard, Madam Speaker, there is no sampling of farm families to benefit from this programme as every smallholder farmer is covered,” he said.

According to the statement, each farming household will purchase two 50 kilogramme bags of fertiliser at K4 495.00 per bag using an AIP electronic system which will replace paper coupons.

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