The Indigenous Businesses Association of Malawi (Ibam) has hailed the launch of the Buy Malawi Strategy which it argues will help propel growth of local enterprises in the country.
Ibam president Mike Mlombwa was speaking in Lilongwe on Friday during the official launch of the strategy presided by President Peter Mutharika.
The launch came at a time when Malawians’ appetite for imported commodities has grown exponentially thereby draining the much needed forex.
Mlombwa said the Buy Malawi Strategy will help boost local production as enterprises will be assured of a ready market.
“Further, the strategy will also ensure that the hard earned forex which the country is generating is used only for essential imports which we are not able to produce ourselves.
“We are confident, that with the right policies in place, an example being this strategy, we will see blossoming of local industries in many sectors of the economy,” he said.
The Ibam chief said it is worrying to note that despite the country boasting of many educated experts in many fields, they are not being utilised because of preference for foreign service providers.
“We have seen in many cases where foreign experts have been engaged on simple assignments. Those foreign experts have in turn engaged Malawians to do the work for them.
“This only confirms that we have a lot of highly trained and experienced human resource in the country. The importation of services only results in the unnecessary drain of our resources and helps to create jobs in other countries at our expense. When Malawian businesses do well we have tax revenues which government utilises for its programmes,” he said.
In his address, Mutharika said the strategy is an oath of patriotism, pledged to Malawi.
“The Buy Malawi initiative is at my heart and the heart of my government. We pledge to buy Malawian because we are proud that Malawi can produce fine products and services worthy our pride and money. Malawi is set to take her place in the world. And we will succeed,” he said.
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