Nkhata Bay District Council gets millions for development
Nkhata Bay District Council has been rewarded for its financial prudence as it has been awarded a grant of K132,733,613.00 for development projects in Nkhata Bay district.
Minister of Finance, Felix Mlusu, alongside Deputy Minister of Local Government, Halima Daud, presented the cheque to Nkhata Bay District Commissioner, Rodney Simwaka, at Silver Sands Hotel in Salima on Friday.
Nkhata Bay District Council is among councils that passed Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD) assessment. Four district councils of Blantyre, Mchinji, Thyolo and Nkhotakota were missing on the list of recipients of the performance-based grant for failure to meet the set standards. This, according to Minister Mlusu, will greatly affect the people in these districts.
Speaking to Nyasa Times after the event, District Commissioner for Nkhata Bay district, Rodney Simwaka, said the grant was important as it will help fund the development projects that people included in the five-year development plan for the district thereby addressing prioritised development needs of the people and reduce poverty.
“We are filled with excitement and joy. We need financial resources to get things done and resources are not easy to come by especially in the resource environment we operate in.
“We have a five-year development plan for the district that contains development aspirations of the people of Nkhata Bay and for it to be implemented, we need financial resources. In fact, the grant narrows the resource gap required to get the plan successfully implemented,” explained Simwaka.
Simwaka therefore advised his officers at the council not only to comply with the Public Finance Management Act but also implement the projects within time and budget.
“It’s only by doing that that we will be able to steadily reduce the development gap and satisfy needs of the people. The secret of success is to remain focussed and staying on top of things. And what is key is getting things done, done on time and keeping paper trail of the same for purposes of accountability, record and learning,” emphasised Simwaka.
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