DPP MP Lipipa challenges Chakwera, says his 2024/25 budget doesn’t commit to his own ATM Strategy
DPP Member of Parliament for Blantyre City South Constituency, Noel Lipipa, has questioned President Lazarus Chakwera’s commitment to his much-touted Agriculture, Tourism and Mining (ATM strategy) challenging that there are no convincing budgetary allocations to the said sectors.
In his State of Nation Address (SONA), President Chakwera told Malawians that his focus would be on agriculture, tourism and mining – which he termed as the ATM strategy—and the budget would prioritize these sectors.
However, responding to the 2024/25 budget estimates on Tuesday, Lipipa wondered how Chakwera would implement ATM with piecemeal budgetary allocation to the said sectors, charging that the budget was not reflecting the SONA.
“The SONA mentions the ATM strategy, now if this was a realistic budget why have we not prioritized infrastructure leading to these destinations? For example, how will tourism work,” wondered Lipipa.
“Imagine a tourist travelling to Mangochi whether through Khwekhwerere or Blantyre would they really tell others to visit Malawi? How about the Rumphi road to Nyika? Speaking of which, the entire northern region has only been allocated K18 billion kwacha for roads? That’s 12 km for the entire region; do the north and her people deserve this kind of treatment?” He added.
On Mining, Lipipa acknowledged the importance of the enormous industry which requires substantial resources but then, he wondered why the government had not allocated enough money if the budget was genuine and speaking to the SONA.
“There is also need to budget for roads to the mining areas but unfortunately that is not the case rendering the ATM strategy as mere populist rhetoric,” he said.
In the agricultural sector, Lipipa noted, “One of the things we need to scrutinize in this budget, is behind spending K160 billion on Agricultural Input Programmes (AIP)”.
“This year’s harvest Chitipa and Rumphi will produce more maize, unfortunately as usual, a greater percentage of the produce will end up on the Zambian market. This has been the case since Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC) cannot go to such areas because of the state of the roads,” he said.
He also mentioned ADMARC’s excuse besides reluctance to purchase the maize due to the high moisture content, as they fear it would rot. “Interestingly, however, the private sector purchases the same maize, and it does not rot. Perhaps one day they will enlighten us on the excuse”, he said.
“The budget is simply populist – yoti musangalatse aliyense as a result there will be no impact kutengela Malawi okomela tonse pa ng’ong’o,” he said.
Lipipa holds a master’s degree in business administration from Malawi School of Government and is currently pursuing a PHD in commerce at The Malawi school of Business and applied sciences (MUBAS).
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