The long-awaited Lilongwe Music Festival (LiFest) has kick-started with scintillating performances by local and international artists at Lilongwe Golf Club on Friday night.
Some of the artist that performed last night include Martse, Quest MW, KIM of Diamonds, Charisma, George Kalukusha, Don Tars, Janta, Faith Musa, Suffix, Taygrin and popular South African singer-songwriter Shekhinah
Jamaican Reggae star
Jamaican reggae artist Christopher Martin and Nigerian singer Joseph Akinwale Akinfenwa- Donus, known in the music circles as Joeboy, are expected to entertain people today at this inaugural invent.
Some of the local artists expected to perform today include The Black Missionaries Band, Kell Kay, Gwamba, and Patience Namadingo.
According to one of the event’s organisers Maya Kalumo, LiFest was created to help tackling issues of mental health, and gender based violence (GBV).
He said people would enjoy the festival as they strive to reach out to people on the problems of mental health and GBV.
The Malawi UK Military Community (MUMCo) will on 4 November 2021 join other Service Personnel to collect donations for the Royal British Legion (RBL). MUMCo is a network of British soldiers of Malawi heritage that has conducted events for the benefit of communities in the UK and in Malawi. The RBL is one of the leading charities helping Service men and women past and present including their families in the UK.
Speaking on behalf of MUMCo, the group’s Communications Director SSgt Chimwemwe Musicha said “Armed Service families in particular play a large part in this year’s Poppy Appeal, an event where the RBL collects donations around the UK. We felt it is important to collect for this worthwhile cause, as a community greatly value the support of RBL”.
SSgnt Chimwemwe Musicha
Commenting on the day’s event, the Chairperson of MUMCo Sheila Tobie Banda added that “the Community has particularly been honored to have been offered its own stations to collect from in London including some of the well-recognized stations on the Underground Network. This will greatly enhance our efforts as these are some of the busiest places in the world’s renowned City of London”.
During the height of the Covid 19 Pandemic MUMCo members ran/walked/cycled 7000 miles (which represented an approximate distance from UK to Malawi) to raise a target of £7000 to buy PPE for healthcare workers in Malawi. The challenge also dubbed 7000 for 7000 raised in excess of £8000 surpassing its original target, which was subsequently donated to Malawi Health workers in Dedza and Mwanza districts.
Director for Miracle Technical Institute, Pachalo Mfune, has challenged graduating students at the institution to work in groups saying this is key to be successful in entrepreneurship.
Mfune made the remarks on Thursday during this year’s graduation which was conducted at the institution. “Graduates should go out there and use entrepreneurship skills that we have taught them and more importantly use the element of working together, this will be very important if they are to record success in whatever business they would embark on. “If they continue to work in groups, they will achieve great things as there is an opportunity for graduates who work together to access a loan which will help them run different businesses,” he said.
Pachalo Mfune
Concurring with Mfune, TEVET Regional Service Center Manager for the North, Joseph Chikopa, TEVET is working towards students who are working in groups to create jobs. “We encourage our trainees to engage into entrepreneurial activities and work together, so far, we have entered into a memorandum of understanding with National Economic Empowerment Fund and FINCA so that our graduates can access loans at softer interest rates,” he said.
On his part, Guest of honour, Danielle Teccareli, who works for European Union Office in Lilongwe said the graduates have an opportunity to be self-employed or employed by others. “These graduates made a good step by being successful in their studies which was very important as now they can employ themselves or get employed by others with the technical and entrepreneurial skills obtained from the institution,” he said.
He has since asked the college to monitor the graduates on what they are becoming after their studies and also to support the graduates on how to approach the market. This was 19th graduation ceremony and 206 students graduated where 106 were females and 101 were males.
President Lazarus Chakwera has expressed excitement with market opportunities in Dubai and is optimistic Malawi will benefit. He said this after a meeting with Emirates Airlines who have opened up to having flights to Malawi to transport agriculture products for the foreign market.
Chakwera expressed gratitude to Emirates Airlines Vice President (Cargo – Africa), Khalid Hinai and Regional Finance and Administration Manager (Gulf, Middle East and Iran), Lloyd Mahowe, for arranging meetings between buyers of agricultural products in Dubai and some farmers in Malawi. During thw meeting , President Chakwera has assured Emirates Airlines that as minister of transport, he will ensure Malawi quickly sorts out capacity challenges at Kamuzu International Airport such as the screening process and inadequate cold storage facilities.
President Chakwera with Emirates Khalid Hinai , Lloyd Mahowe and Vitumbiko Mumba
A few weeks ago, Foreign Affairs minister, Eisenhower Mkaka and Mahowe, were in Dubai working on how to curb the challenges.President Chakwera informed the meeting that Malawi’s economy is agro-based and that his administration is focusing on agriculture in order to improve the economy. He assured the meeting that his government is working on ensuring a good environment for the private sector to thrive.
Engineer Vitumbiko Mumba told the meeting that it was up to Malawians to enhance production levels so as to tap into the available demand. “It is not on for the cargo key flight to be leaving Malawi empty and instead go and get agricultural products in Uganda when we can provide the same. Leadership is what we need and in Chakwera we have that leadership hence all these initiatives,” Eng. Mumba said.
Minister of Tourism, Culture and Wildlife, Michael Usi, says hotels must seriously think about making their services accessible to local Malawians who may not be able to afford the rates that are often charged to regular guests.
He said this on Tuesday, October 26, 2022 when he presided over the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a five-star Crossroads Hotel at Mount Pleasant in Blantyre.
He said he will be lobbying the hotel establishment in the country to try and come up with special packages, especially targeting locals, within specified periods, to give them a chance to sample the quality on offer from the country’s hotel establishment. Usi added that doing this would be one way of encouraging local tourism in line with his ministry’s strategy of promoting domestic tourism in the country.
The minister said the ground breaking ceremony is a clear manifestation of the vision and confidence that Z.S.T Investments Limited has in the economy of the country despite the setbacks that have been brought about by Covid-19.
“Z.S.T Investments is not new to the tourism sector in Malawi. They own the Crossroads Hotel chain in Lilongwe and here in Blantyre, and both of them have pioneered landmark projects in recent years that have transformed the landscape of not only the tourism and hospitality sector but also the outlook of our cities,” said the minister.
He said he was excited to honor the invitation to preside over the ceremony because he is encouraged by the fact that even in the midst the Covid-19 pandemic, people still see a thriving future for the tourism sector in the country, adding that his ministry will support the project every step of the way because it believes that integrated tourism projects like these will be the surest way to move the country to achieve important milestones in its quest to make tourism a major forex earner for the country in line with Malawi’s vision 2063.
Tourism Minister Michael Usi at the hotel construction launch
Said the minister: “This hotel project is a timely investment as it is in line with the Malawi 2063 which recognizes the potential of Tourism as one of the key economic drivers under the Urbanization Pillar. In addition, the project is also in line with my Ministry’s aspirations outlined in the country’s Tourism Investment Masterplan which my Ministry is developing to address the gaps that currently exist in our sector in order to ensure that the country can effectively compete at international level.”
He urged hotel establishments to seriously invest in the development of human capital whilst urging his ministry’s star grading system to include the quality of human resources as part of the criteria for star grading.
“Service quality starts from the reception that one receives just after arriving at a hotel, because sometimes the level of reception in hotels leaves a lot to be desired, and one wonders why some people are in the hotel business in the first place,” said the Minister, whilst commending staff at his ministry for not cutting corners in ensuring that all procedures are followed when investments like these ones are conceptualized .
In his speech, Chairman of ZST Investments Ltd, Haroon Sacranie said this flagship investment is the third major investment in Malawi to have come from the group since 2004, adding that this signifies the confidence that the group has in Malawi as an investment destination. He said this will be a 5-star hotel, which will have 96 rooms, and apart from offering conference facilities for over 1000 people at a time, the complex will also have shops; parking space for over 250 vehicles and a filling station.
“My projects always start with a vision, and Crossroads investments is one of the leading investments in the country. I would particularly like to thank President Lazarus Chakwera for his efforts to create an enabling environment for investors in the country, which is making it possible for us to implement our vision for investment. This project, apart from creating employment for the people that will be working at the hotel, will also indirectly create many jobs among suppliers in our value chain, which will include many people in the villages. We believe this is in line with government’s vision of creating jobs and uplifting the social and economic status of so many Malawians across the country,” said Sacranie.
Other speakers at the function included Blantyre City Mayor, Wild Ndipo and Acting PS for the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Wildlife, George Masinga.
