Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Joseph Mwanamvekha says government has increased Presidential Cup Sponsorship from Mk120 Million to MK 400 Million.
Mwanamvekha made the announced on Friday during the presentation of 2020/21 budget statement at Parliament building in Lilongwe. He said President Peter Mutharika is committed in improving sporting activities in the country.
“The President (Professor Peter Mutharika) is committed to improving sporting standards in this country especially at grassroots level.
In order to live up to this commitment, this Government has increased sponsorship of the Presidential Cup to MK400.0 million from MK120.0 million,” said Mwanamvekha.
Of this amount, MK200.0 million will be allocated to football, K100.0 million to netball and the balance of MK100.0 million to cater for all other sports disciplines in all the districts.
According to the Minister, administration of all sports activities under the Presidential Cup initiative will be done through the Office of the President and Cabinet.
The Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, Joseph Mwanamvekha has projected the 2020/2021 Budget at over MK2 trillion representing 28.3 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Mwanamvekha made the statement today at Parliament in Lilongwe during his presentation of the 2020/2021 Budget Statement.
Minister has allocated K29 billion for the fresh presidential election. He indicated that discussions with donors on the financing of the elections have proved futile as most donors have expressed their inability to support this election.
On women and youth empowerment, the Minister said Government has increased the loan allocation to the Malawi Enterprise Development Fund to K15 billion.
Out of this, K2 billion will be dedicated to be accessed by women and youth who have been directly affected by COVID-19.
On Education and Skills Development, the Minister said the sector has been allocated the largest portion of the budget amounting to MK387.9 billion which he said is representing 19.2 percent of the total budget.
“The Health Sector ranks second with a projected allocation of MK195.3 billion, representing 9.7 percent of the total budge, ” said Mwanamvekha.
Delivering the Statement, Mwanamvekha expressed concern over rising public debt which he said remains a major concern to the Government.
“As much as Government would have waned to reduce public debt, this was not possible during the 2019/2020 fiscal year and will likely remain unattainable during the 2020/2021 fiscal year due to the economic downturn and the resultant decline in domestic revenues,” said the Minister.
Concluding the statement, the Finance Minister said the financial year 2020/2021 budget seeks to speed up economic recovery, infrastructure development and economic empowerment for the vast majority of our people, including the youth, women and physically challenged.
Mwanamvekha said the 2020/2021 budget further aims to ride on the macroeconomic stability so far achieved during the past three fiscal years and build a resilient economy capable of withstanding unforeseen shocks.
Parliament will go into Cluster Committees to scrutinize the 2020/2021 budget from Monday, 15th June to Friday, 19th June, 2020.
Opposition Spokesperson on Finance and Chairperson of the Budget Committee will respond to the budget from Monday, 22nd June to Friday, 19th June, 2020.
This will be followed by general debate which will be curtailed on Thursday, 25th June and immediately, thereafter, the House will go into Committee of Supply up to Tuesday, 29th June, 2020.
The 2020/21 Budget is expected to be passed in Parliament by Monday, 30th of June, 2020.
The flamboyant Director of youth in the Malawi Congress Party Hon Richard Chimwendo, popularly known as Bulldozer will on Monday 15th June engage with Malawians living in diaspora. According to statement Tonse alliance Diaspora, Chimwendo will be the main guest at a virtual event that is aimed at raising funds for election monitoring for the forth coming presidential elections
Speaking to 247Malawi News, Amos Banda, country director of MCP Diaspora Wing RSA said Party members of Tonse alliance partners came up with this idea after realising that many people that are in diaspora cannot vote but can play a role is safeguarding the vote. “ DPP managed to rig the last elections , but this time around we want to have enough monitors to make sure Dr Lazarus Chakwera vote is protected. Therefore we have requested Hon Richard Chmwendo to be with us and talk to Malawians that are in diaspora”
The event will be virtual using the video conferencing app Zoom and will start at 7pm . Since its part of a fundraising initiative, slots for the events are being reserved after a payment of a small fee . “Slots for the event are going fast and we urge people to reserve theirs as soon as they can . It will cost R200 for those in South Africa and other African countries, £15 for those in Europe and £20 for those in America. We have also decided to give opportunity to those in Malawi to join us which will cost MK10000” Said Banda.
Those wanting to secure slots are encouraged to contact these number +27727951553 or +27829941709 or any of the Tonse alliance diaspora groups . Malawi conducts its presidential elections on June 23 after constitutional court nullified last years elections results .
MCP Diaspora spokesman Chalo Mvula commended Tonse Alliance RSA for having courage to arrange this event, and for displaying the unity that is there in Tonse alliance. Similar events have happened in the last two weeks with Hon Patricia Kaliati, Daud Suleman and Timothy Mtambo being guests for events organised by Tonse Alliance USA and UK respectively.
It has been reported that police officers who were part of Vice President Dr Saulos Chilima security have sustained serious injuries after their vehicle was involved in an accident in Ntcheu. Chilima who is the running mate of Tonse alliance was on a campaign trail and was on whistle stops in the district. They were rushed to Balaka District Hospital for treatment.
Our team of investigators have established that, the so-called accident is actually a near miss. Enemies of the vice president had planned to eliminate him, but things didn’t go to plan, and his vehicle was missed. “This is a hit job that missed the target, they had planned to cause accident to Chilima vehicle but things didn’t go according to plan and sadly it’s the police officers that have been injured”
Chilima
Chilima has been clear in his meetings that some politicians are planning of killing him. Just last week he accused former president Bakili Muluzi of plotting to attack him in Mangochi using an agent named Mr Mtenje. Recently his speeches have been more spiritual , calling people not to be afraid because God is with Malawi.
UTM spokesperson, Dr. Joseph Chidanti-Malunga, said the vice president had to call-off the last of his whistle-stop rallies on the Ntcheu trip.
Chilima’s campaign trail has meet a lot of setbacks as he has been a target of attacks. It all started when his convoy was stoned in Phalombe . A few days ago , his convoy was pelted with stones again in Liwonde which left some people injured . Investigations established that Muluzi family was involved in paying money to people to throw stones at the Vice president.
Speaking on condition of anonymity , our source said “ Chilima is feared most because he seems to know a lot of secrets of most of the big names in UDF and DPP, thats why they want to eliminate him “
Malawi goes to the polls on June 23 to elect a new president.
Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Joseph Mwanamvekha will present the the 2020/2021 national budget in Parliament this Friday, June 12.
Mwanamvekha has hinted that the main focus of the country’s financial plan is to mitigate the impact of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic while also speeding up economic recovery and building up resilience against external shocks.
Treasury has said that the country’s purse keeper will present and lay before Parliamment the budget statement at 9.30am.
“However due to Covid-19 pandemic mitigation measurers the Honourable Minster has not made any invitations to the Budget Presentation and urges all stakeholders and the general public to listen to the budget statement presentation through the radios, television and online broadcasting,” said the statement.
Finance Minister: Mwanamveka
The budget statement will also be made available on Ministry of Finance website www.finance.gov.mw soon after presentation.
The government has since lowered its economic growth forecast for 2020 to 1.9 percent, Covid-19 which has taken its toll on growth sector.
But the projection is still 0.9 percentage points above the International Monetary Fund (IMF) real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) forecast for Malawi for 2020 of one percent.
President Peter Mutharika in his pre-recorded State-of-the-Nation (Sona) address at Parliament last Friday explained that his government still managed to achieve the 2019 targeted 5 percent of economic growth, an improvement from the 3.9 percent real GDP growth registered in 2018.
However, Budget and Finance Committee of Parliament chairperson Sosten Gwengwe has painted a gloomy picture, saying with Covid-19 crisis, the country is heading into a recession come September or December.
A recession is a period of economic decline during which trade and industrial activity shrinks and is generally manifested by a fall in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in two successive quarters.
Parliament will meet up to July 24 for the Budget Meeting
