Malawians Should Be Wary of Dr. Chakwera’s So-Called Business Deals

Over the past five years, President Lazarus Chakwera has repeatedly announced grand investment deals supposedly secured during his many international trips. These announcements are usually made with pomp and optimism but time and again, they have failed to materialize into anything tangible for the ordinary Malawian.

In November 2021, President Chakwera declared that Malawi had signed a $1 billion investment deal with the Egyptian firm Elsewedy Electric. It was presented as a transformative agreement for Malawi’s energy and industrial sectors. Yet to this day, not a single kwacha of that investment has been seen, no construction has begun, and no jobs have been created.

We were also promised an “early Christmas gift” from Brigin. That, too, has gone silent just another promise that made for a good headline and a nice photo opportunity, but delivered absolutely nothing on the ground.

Now, during his recent visit to Nigeria, Dr. Chakwera has announced yet another “investment*deal.” But this raises a serious question: Is this just another one of those deals that sounds great in a press release but disappears without a trace? Malawians have heard this story before. We’ve been told that each foreign trip is worth the cost because it attracts investment but where is the evidence?

These repeated announcements without delivery have become a pattern. It is beginning to appear that these so-called deals are being used to justify costly foreign travel, rather than to bring real, measurable development to Malawi.

We must hold our leaders to a higher standard. Announcements are not achievements. Travel is not development. Press releases do not build roads, create jobs, or feed families.

As a nation we deserve better. We need leaders who can not only speak about investment, but actually deliver it, leaders who put the nation before publicity and substance before spectacle.