By Chisomo Phiri
Minister of Local Government, Unity and Culture, Richard Chimwendo Banda, has urged city councils in the country to prioritize service provision and adhere to urban planning regulations.
Speaking during the opening of a two-day 5th Cities Caucasus Conference at Malawi Sun Hotel in Blantyre, Banda emphasized the need for cities to provide essential services such as waste management, road maintenance, and water connections.
The minister also stressed the importance of urban planning, saying that all developments must align with approved plans and master plans.
“No one should build without an approved plan,” said Banda.
The minister added that this would help create clean, well-managed, and planned cities.
Banda called on the private sector to partner with city councils to improve service delivery.
He also highlighted the government’s commitment to providing more resources to district councils and city councils.
Chimwendo emphasized the need to digitize revenue collection systems to improve efficiency and correlation with the Malawi Revenue Authority(MRA ).
On her part,Malawi Local Government Association (MALGA), Esther Sagawa highlighted the challenges faced by urban councils in monitoring infrastructure developments.
She said many people build their infrastructures without proper approvals, making it difficult and expensive for councils to enforce regulations.
Sagawa also mentioned cancellation of the Millennium Challenge Cooperation (MCA ) fund as another factor that has also affected urban councils, which had allocated projects to improve revenue collection.
She emphasized the need for innovative solutions to continue these projects and called for partnerships with the private sector to improve service delivery.
The MALGA president cited examples of successful partnerships, including with the JAICA project, which provided financing for equipment such as fire engine trucks.
She stressed that collaboration with the private sector and other partners is key to addressing the challenges faced by urban councils and providing better services to communities.
