MALAWI GROWTH DEVELOPMENT
STRATEGY III AND THE MINERALS SECTOR
BY GRAIN W. P. MALUNGA FIMMM
MINERALS, GEOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT AND CORPORATE AFFAIRS CONSULTANT
ABSTRACT
The minerals sector is the driver for economic development in most African countries. South Africa,
Zimbabwe, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana and Angola are some of
the countries that have benefited from the minerals sector. It is there for surprising that Malawi has
downgraded mining, in Malawi Growth and Development Strategy III (MGDS III), as a low key priority
area. The country continues to dwell much on social development and not economic development.
Economic development comes from private sector growth whose revenue to government should meet
the needs of social development.
What the country should do is to speed up conclusion of Development Agreements, enact the Mines
and Minerals Bill, promote import substitution and oversee speedy development of rare earths,
niobium and graphite projects within the next 3 to 5 years.
This paper tries to focus on how the minerals sector could have enriched the MGDS III.
INTRODUCTION
The Malawi Growth Development Strategy III (MGDS III) has downgraded the importance of mineral
resources as a driver for economic development. The focus is now on the following national
development priorities:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Agriculture and Climate Change Management
Education and Skills Development
Transport and ICT infrastructure
Energy, Industry and Tourism Development and
Health and Population Management
MGDS III states that agriculture contributed 28% to the GDP 28% in 2017 though lower than 38% in
1994. Between 2012 and 2017, the inflation rate was stable, but relatively high at around 20% as
compared to single-digit levels in the first half of the decade. The bank lending rate is high and at 22%
increasing significantly the cost of goods and services produced from bank loans. businesses.
Overreliance on rain fed agriculture means being at the mercy of unpredictable weather pattern.
Wrong choice of components of education and skills development lead to mismatch with the needs
of energy development and industrialisation. Mining plays a big economic role in promoting market
availability for agriculture produce and triggers skills development in the areas of welding and
fabrication, automation, environmental health and infrastructure development.
The development agenda states that 50.7% of the population are still living under the poverty line of
below $1 a day. Ultra-poor population has increased from 22.4% to 25% between 2005 and 2015. The
Gini coefficient, the most commonly used measure of inequality increased from 0.39 in 2005 to 0.45
in 2014.
For Malawi’s economy to grow there is need to include the minerals sector as key priority area. The
minerals sector offers an opportunity for economic linkages, growing local content and creating
employment for the youth both skilled and unskilled.
MDGS III AND LOST LINKAGES WITH THE MINERALS SECTOR
The Table below shows how promotion of the minerals sector should have benefited economic
growth:
AREA OF INTERACTION
STRATEGY
AGRICULTURE
Increased agriculture
market development,
agro processing and
value addition
Promotion of agro minerals for agricultural productivity e.g.
vermiculite, rock phosphate and agriculture lime
Access to agro markets through cooperative societies supplying
food to the mines
Promoting access to finance for women, youth and vulnerable
groups in agriculture.
WATER DEVELOPMENT
Increased access to
water resources
Improving water supply in rural and urban areas.
Promoting empowerment of local communities to properly
develop and manage catchment areas.
Linking fresh water mine dams with community irrigation farms
EDUCATION AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
Improved access to
quality tertiary
education for economic
linkages and local
content
Improving, expanding and maximizing the use of permanent
infrastructure such as classrooms, school facilities and teachers’
houses.
Promoting research, technology development and transfer in
mineral value addition.
Developing higher education institution programs that are
relevant to the prevailing needs of the nation e.g. welding,
fabrication, automation and process engineering
Linking up training institutions to companies for hands-on
training e.g. internship and research based solutions
URBANISATION AND RURAL ECONOMIC GROWTH
Integrated rural
development
Development of sustainable rural growth centres related with
mining
Provision of social amenities and infrastructure such as
education, health, water and electricity
Generation of employment to the youth, women and other
minority groups
IMPROVED FISCAL AND REVENUE MANAGEMNT
SUSTAINABLE
ECONOMIC GROWTH
Revenue generation through taxes and fees e.g. Royalties,
Corporate Tax, Value Added Tax, and Rents and Pay As You Earn
Creation of sovereign fund
Improved transparency and accountability through Extractive
Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)
THE MINERALS SECTOR HAS THE POTENTIAL TO STEER ECONOMIC
GROWTH IN MALAWI
Fiscal Policy and National Development Program uncertainty poses a lot of risks and challenges to
investors. Malawi’s economy needs to graduate from tertiary industry to secondary industry through
proper planning and realising full benefits of economic diversification.
The country imports mineral based commodities such as lime, fertilizer, ceramic products, coal and
steel. These can be produced locally to promote import substation and save foreign exchange. Malawi
has a lot of limestone deposits that can be used for manufacture of agriculture lime, chemical grade
lime and cement. We import fertilizer when we can manufacture our own through locally based
minerals such as rock phosphate and pyrite. We continue to import ceramic products such as sanitary
ware and tiles when we have clays. We continue to export scrap metal instead of recycling to metal
products such as reinforcement steel and flat metal sheets. We continue to import coal for steam
generation when we can develop our coal deposits for domestic use (coal briquettes), agro processing
and energy generation.
Malawi has immediate potential to generate export revenue through graphite, rare earths, niobium
and uranium. The projects are well spread to steer regional economic growth. Real opportunities are
emerging in the renewable energy sector and battery industry to support exploitation of the above
minerals within three to five years. These projects are can be developed with a short period if the
government can be serious with timely conclusion of development agreements and timely enactment
of the new mines and Minerals Bill that will put into effect the Mines Taxation Act. There is also need
to remove Value Added Tax in exploration programs as resources used are risk based with no clear
opportunity of pay-back. The nuclear sector has a lot of projects under way in China, India, America,
Europe and Africa. These will require uranium as fuel and therefore Malawi stands to benefit again
and more opportunities are there to discover more deposits.
New focus for exploration should be in gold, copper, lithium, nickel, platinum, diamonds, gemstones
and dimension stone. This is only possible if government puts mining as one of its Key Priority Areas
in order to attract development cooperation and private sector investment.
As the world evolves towards electric cars and renewable energy, the importance of rare earths,
lithium and graphite to the global wind energy and battery industry will be a strong driver of mining
investment in this country. President’s Trump revolution of developing America’s steel industry will
also require niobium as part of the steel alloys.
We now see that mining projects are increasingly seen as an opportunity to provide communities with
significant financial and educational benefits.
CONCLUSION
Exclusion of the Minerals Sector in the MGDS III as a key priority sector slows down progress that was
gained in MGDS II when the Minerals sector saw generation of geoscientific information necessary to
trigger exploration activities in the mining sector. MGDS III should have firmed up this progress and
concentrate on investment into import substitution projects and concentrating on promoting and
facilitating development of niobium, graphite and rare earths projects for export. The policy strategy
would be to link the mining industry with tertiary education that promotes economic linkages, local
content and youth and women employment. Agriculture sector stands to benefit from the mining
sector through development of agro minerals and promoting marketing of agro produce to mines.
Infrastructure developed through mining will promote agro processing and create access to other
markets.
Revenue from the minerals sector will also boost revenue generation for government. Super profits
will be used to create sovereign fund for critical infrastructure projects and funds for future
generation.