by Twimepoki Mangani

:Ministry of Lands has outlined projects aimed at distributing 5000 plots within a space of five years to serve Malawians for residential, commercial and institutional development purposes.

The sentiments were made by Minister of Lands Deus Gumba on Monday as he gave a ministerial statement on Access to Land for Urban Development in Malawi, during the commencement of the 2nd meeting of the National Assembly in the 50th session of the Parliament in Lilongwe.

Speaking on the sidelines of the session, Gumba highlighted the progress the ministry has made in creation of plots to meet the demand in urbans areas.

“I should say the President Dr Lazarus Chakwera’s administration is determined to have 5000 plots done within a period of five years spread across the country, about 1600 in the South, 1600 in the central and 600 in the north among others.

“The amended land law states that we cannot just grab land from people, we are supposed to pay about MK30 billion in total as compensation, of course as government we cannot have all the money at the same time, this will be more like a revolving fund since the same money people pay for development will also be used hence once we start, we shall move in the right direction,” he said.

Gumba also noted that the ministry is hopeful treasury will allocate funds during the mid-year budget for the same.

Speaking on the same legislature for Zomba-Chisi, Mark Botomani expressed concern that the ministry has had a tendency of prioritising foreigners in allocation of plots in cities and is hopeful change will be implemented.

“My plea to the Minister was to assure the house that they will prioritise Malawians because land is a precious commodity so when foreigners are given prime land we suspect corruption but of course the Minister said according to the new Land Act Malawians are now a priority,” Botomani said.