By Chisomo Phiri

United Transformation Movement (UTM) party leader Dalitso Kabambe on Saturday  named engineer Dr. Matthews Mtumbuka as his running mate for the September 16 elections.

Kabambe made the announcement at the Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe, where he submitted his nomination papers to the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to confirm his candidacy for the upcoming elections.

In his remarks,Kabambe  expressed sadness that, despite Malawi having been independent for 61 years, the country is still struggling with poverty and numerous challenges.

The former Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM ) Governor lamented that although Malawi is blessed with fertile land and abundant water resources, it remains one of the least developed countries in the world.

He pointed out that, for example, food insecurity has affected the physical development of many people, with some individuals being shorter in stature due to a lack of proper nutrition during their childhood.

The economic genius further complained that corruption, nepotism in job recruitment, and a lack of accountability among public officials are among the key factors holding the country back.

He emphasized that if he wins the September 16 elections, things will change, and such challenges will become a thing of the past.

Many Malawians applauded Kabambe for choosing Mtumbuka as his running mate for polls.

Mtumbuka’s areas of strength include:all-round transformational leadership, community organization, entrepreneurship, governance, academics, strategy, engineering, information technology, business development, stakeholder management, private sector, action-focused and result-oriented approach to work ethic – team motivation and inspiration.

Mtumbuka is the founder and CEO/MD of Weagle Holdings Ltd, trading in energy, Information Technology, management consulting, and retail (supermarkets, beverages, and distribution of FMCGs).

Headquartered in Lilongwe and with ten operating units, Weagle Holdings Ltd employs more than 80 people (including 10 graduates), with 70% of them young, i.e., aged 18 to 30 years, and nearly 40% of them women.

Weagle subsidiaries have an operating presence in Mzuzu, Mzimba, Jenda, Salima, Golomoti, and Lilongwe.

As a private sector executive, he rose to the ranks of CEO/MD and led two international engineering companies before going full-time into entrepreneurship in April 2023.

He was the founding MD of Helios Towers Malawi after successfully leading UbuntuNet Alliance for Research and Education – an International Organisation that provides Broadband/Internet and other education technology services to hundreds of universities in 26 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Previously, he worked as IT Director for Airtel for 8 years in Malawi, Rwanda, and in a regional role at Airtel’s Africa Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, covering 14 countries in Africa.

Prior to that, he worked at Malswitch (now NITEL) in Malawi and Shell Exploration and Production – Europe based in Aberdeen, UK.

At Shell, he was an IT Service Delivery Coordinator with a scope covering 8 countries in Europe including the UK, Netherlands, Norway, Ukraine, and Ireland among the major operations.

He was also President of ConnectIT, an association of 100 young IT Professionals working for several Shell companies across Europe, organizing the professional development of fellow young professionals.

He has taught as an adjunct Lecturer in Management of Technology at the Business School, University of Cape Town, South Africa.

He is currently an Adjunct Professor affiliated with Chandigarh University, which ranks among the top 10 private universities in India.

Professionally, in 2011, at the age of 33,Mtumbuka became the youngest engineer to be elected the President of the Malawi Institution of Engineers (MIE), a record he still holds.

He currently sits on boards of several companies and organizations in Malawi including NBS Bank, NICO Technologies where he Chairs the Board, NICO Pension Services Ltd, and is Council Chair for Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST).

Previously, he chaired the Malawi Scotland Partnership (MaSP) and was Vice Chair for MZUNI Council, and sat on Boards of Pride Malawi and TNM Mpamba.

A registered engineer with the Malawi Board of Engineers and a Rhodes Scholar, Mtumbuka received a PhD in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford in England in 2005 at the age of 27 years (arguably the youngest Malawian at the time) after graduating from the University of Malawi(UNIMA ) with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (with distinction) in 2002.

His PhD research produced 10 refereed publications.

As a teenager,Mtumbuka was a Maths and Science enthusiast – emerged second best Maths student in Malawi in Form 3 in 1995 under the Old Mutual Mathematics Olympiad and national champion in the science fairs while in Form 4 in 1996 after successfully designing and manufacturing a battery charger for non-rechargeable dry cells (batteries).

He also received recognition from the Dean of Engineering at the University of Malawi – Polytechnic (now MUBAS) after scoring the highest marks in the entire engineering faculty (approximately 350 students) in 1997.

He also received the Mobil/Total and Stansfield awards several times.

In his undergraduate, he is best remembered for the role he played as President of the Polytechnic Students Union (PSU) in leading the fight against the prohibitive 3,000% fee hike by the then Finance Minister late Mathews Chikaonda from MK1,500 to MK46,000, and the fees were finally reduced to MK25,000.

He later competed for the coveted Rhodes Scholarship, which selects only one student every year from the Southern Africa region constituency that covers Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, and Swaziland.

In 2001, Mtumbuka emerged as the winner of this prestigious Rhodes scholarship which funded his PhD at Oxford.

While at Oxford, Mtumbuka was selected by the American Academy of Achievements as one of the 250 most outstanding postgraduate students in the World and was invited to the Achievement Summit in Chicago, USA in 2004 where he met many world leaders including Bill Clinton, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, and the Israeli President Shimon Peres.

At Oxford, he served in a number of leadership positions including as a graduate representative of his Hertford College to the University Students Union, as a representative of the University student body (20,000) on the University Information Security Policy Committee, and as President of the Oxford University Africa Society (Afrisoc, 300 members).

In that capacity, he invited and hosted the State President of Malawi Dr. Bakili Muluzi for a talk to African Students at the Rhodes House, Oxford in January 2004. In June 2004,Mtumbuka was elected President of the Oxford Speakers Club (part of the Toastmasters International) and became the first black and first non-British president in the Club’s 40-year history.

While working for Shell in Scotland UK, in 2007,Mtumbuka got listed in the reputable Marquis Who’s Who in the world, one of only two Malawians that year.

In the same year, when he was Chairman of the Association of Malawians in Aberdeen Scotland, Mtumbuka worked with his colleague Dr. Malawi Ngwira, to found and develop the Malawian Initiative for National Development (MIND).

By working with key partners such as DFID and VSO, MIND identified, trained, and facilitated travel and upkeep for diaspora Malawians to go back to Malawi on volunteering assignments in their fields of expertise.

Upon return to Malawi,Mtumbuka led the effort of activating the Malawi Scotland Partnership (MaSP) which was very inactive unlike the sister organization in Scotland.

He was appointed Board Secretary and later Board Chairman and in that role he spearheaded the full establishment of MaSP as an organization, setting up the office, recruiting staff, and putting in place all relevant policies until it was a fully-fledged operating organization with impactful programmes across the country.

Gifted with community organizing skills, in 2019 when there was security degradation around area 10 in Lilongwe,Mtumbuka voluntarily organized a community meeting attended by 80 residents, local chiefs, police, and city council leaders.

He championed the formation of the ‘Association’ of Residents in Area 10 and, working with the police and other stakeholders, contained the security situation in the area and remains Community Chairperson for Area 10.

Mtumbuka was later elected Chairperson for the Security Executive Committee (SEC) for the Lingadzi Policing Area, which covers Areas 10, 11, 43, 12, Capital Hill, City Centre, 14, 15, 47, 49, 30, among others.

In his spare time,mentors a lot of young professionals and conducts free motivational webinars online to train and inspire young people to develop themselves, build their confidence, and realize their true potential.

In 2012,Mtumbuka was among 25 young leaders in Africa selected by the African Leadership Institute as an Archbishop Tutu Fellow.

For 15 years, he has been writing two weekly motivational columns in Nation Newspapers.

He is an avid public speaker and has trained in public speaking with Toastmasters for 20 years in Oxford, Aberdeen, Blantyre, Rwanda, and Lilongwe. He was the champion of Impromptu Speaking in Scotland in 2007 and ranked 3rd at the finals of UK and Ireland in the same year.

He has been ranked champion of public speaking in Malawi and represented the country at the international level in 2010, 2012, and 2020.