Ministry upbeat on one million jobs, wealth creation: Malawi to establish job centres

Minister of Labour Ken Kandodo and his deputy Vera Kamtukule have said they undertaking Ministerial consultations with some key stakeholders in both the public and private sector including the informal business sector to leverage on potential strategies that can create jobs.

Kandodo, who on Friday toured Lilongwe and Salima technical colleges, said the technical colleges are key in nurturing entrepreneurial skills that enable the growth of small-scale enterprises into medium to large investments that create jobs for more people.

“After developing skills, the entrepreneurial ideas should be incubated into real business so that students are supported with capital and necessary tools for business ventures,” said Kandodo.

The Minister challenged technical colleges to be innovative in using their facilities and student skills to implement income generating services such as motor vehicle repairs and consultative, among others, to ensure sustainability of the institutions.

The Tonse Alliance led government is on the move to create one million jobs in one year as part of its campaign pledge and believes that skills development is key for growth of small media enterprises (SMEs) which are key in job creation.

In a statement posted on her Facebook page, deputy minister of labour Vera Kamtukule said they have set up a National Steering Committee on Labour and Employment to play the role of providing overall guidance.

She said the Committee includes the Ministries of Labour, Finance, Economic Planning and Development, Trade and Industry. The committee also includes Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI) and others relevant stakeholders.

The deputy minister said they are also currently collecting additional data from 1,100 institutions which include large scale firms SMEs, public sector, NGOs and Civil Society Organisations.

“The data collected will reveal the current employment situation in the country and the potential jobs that will be created in the next five years. In addition the data will be used to develop an issues report, a concept document and its implementation Strategy,” said Kamtukule.

“It should be pointed out that we did not have a system for tracking jobs created and those lost, and so we are currently finalizing the development of a web based Labour Market Information system which will do that for us. We have since met with the consultant who developed the system, we have given our input on how it can be improved and it should be up and running by the end of August 2020. The system will be accessible to the general public as well,” said Kamtukule.

She said upon completion of the multi-sectoral strategy, which will be a blue print on how the jobs will be created, based on the situation at that time, it will be launched and then rolled out accordingly

“It must be pointed out that our consultations with various stakeholders has shown that there are some sectors with great potential to develop jobs, e.g. Agriculture, tourism, mining, service among others.”

She said a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework will be prepared to monitor the implementation of the Job creation strategy plan.

“We plan to establish job centres in every district councils and cities. This is because access to information on labour and employment information by both potential employers and employers has proven to be a challenge.

“The existing job placement centres (labour offices) only cater for lower level jobs but modern job centres will target all levels of jobs. In the initial phase the centres will be developed starting with cities of Blantyre, Zomba, Lilongwe and Mzuzu; including municipalities of Mangochi, Karonga, Kasungu and Luchenza,” said the deputy minister.

Kamtukule said the creation of jobs in Malawi will be achieved, saying “the process may be tedious and at times overwhelming, but it will be done, our economy depends on it.”

She said it is the responsibility of government to ensure there is an enabling environment that will steer the creation of decent and well paying jobs for the people.

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