Almost everything in Malawi needs a rethink and restructuring. Almost Everything! Not just our e-passport system https://techweez.com/2024/02/22/malawi_e-passport-system-hacked/

Tamvani a #Malawi.
Almost all major world economies had phases of planned economics during their developmental trajectories, prior to their transitioning to a free market economics system, so it’s quite unfair to expect African countries like Malawi not to have strong state-led interventions and economic steering, to achieve certain basic objectives.

In its most crude form, planned economics involved politicians, political leaders and technocrats intervening in the economy, sometimes in collaboration with wealthy merchants, business captains and leaders of industry. In our scenario, it must look something like this:-

1. Creating new of companies, industrial organisations and occupations: for example, say we need iron sheets for houses, offices, industrial units, etc. The process would involve buying, transporting and assembling a smelting plant on one location. You then need to train and employ 50 workers to work in it. Subsequently, you will need raw ore and other materials to feed into the plant, so you will need to build a mine somewhere near ore deposits and employ 200 – 300 workers. But you also need logistics and all manner of support services, so you’d need to build a railway connecting point A and point B… or extend the local railway infrastructure to connect your 2 points. Of course feasibility studies would be required to compute and assess all aspects of the project.
2. Raising & Providing Capital: So to build and achieve all these aims, we will need money, so let’s raise funding from the central bank, local debt or by issuing sovereign bonds to finance these projects.
3. You need Capital Equipment (both local and foreign): Source it somewhere, at competitive prices.
4. What about Management, Advice and Support from specialists in the technical areas, to ensure the smooth running, efficiency and profitability of your industries?

This is just one example, but broadly Malawi:-

• Needs to re-plan and restructure the Educational system – so that it’s relevant to the 21st Century and starts churning out active and knowledgeable job creators, not just passive graduates who only want to be employees.
• We need to re-plan the Healthcare System – so that it’s fit for purpose and is able to support those who need to access it. We need to build more hospitals and renovate, supply and equip the ones we already have.
• We need to re-plan the Electrification and Power Supply Systems. Relying on diesel generators or hydro-electric (and it’s historically unreliable record) won’t cut it. We need more…, Geothermal generators (see this article), lots of Solar Energy (we need a program where the state creates micro-grids and donates free solar panels and associated equipment to local schools, hospitals and public institutions across the country). We also need more Natural gas, and Wind energy investments.
• We need to re-plan the Procurement System – not just ensuring payments are indeed made within 30 days of awarding a contract to those who have been contracted, but it needs to be streamlined and transparent. And it need to be independently audited, frequently. Also, it needs to be online.
• We need to re-plan our Telecommunications sector and landscape – Everything needs to grow exponentially. Everything needs to be 5x – 10 x cheaper. Every Library in Malawi should have free internet access for the public. Every hospital. And we need supported public spaces where children from all backgrounds are free to go and access free internet, information and other services. Further, and this is an important one, we need to lift people’s lives with free tablet computers and nettops, to help bridge the knowledge gap. And the government (not aid organisations/ NGOs) must lead this process.
• We need to replan the way our Public Institutions work. Where are the Public sector reforms?
• We need to re-plan and restructure our Legal and Law Enforcement System (and the protections it awards to citizens): It’s simply not good enough in 2024, for journalists to be going into hiding, because of political persecution, or threats … as a result of their commendable work in exposing corruption in high office. It’s shameful and unacceptable. Where on earth is our police? I know that broadly, this point relates to the general security situation, but this factor alone should tell you everything that is wrong with the country…
• We need to re-plan, re-think and restructure our Tax System. It’s not good enough, in 2024, for Investors to continue be awarded investment deals that are unfair and one-sided.
• We need to ease the Financial burdens that our citizens are facing by introducing multiple programs that build wealth and which gives citizens a stake in the long term economic vision of Malawi.
• We need to re-plan and restructure how Malawi Invests internationally. Simply put, Malawi needs to establish an Investment Corporation that seeks long-term international opportunities outside Malawi. Here, there are many examples, but the latest in today’s world (2024) is NVIDIA, the American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. Please read the following links before reading the next sentences below:
• https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stock-market-today-sp-500-flips-to-green-before-nvidia-earnings-210307222.html;
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2024/02/21/nvidia-earnings-mark-another-historic-quarter-for-ai-titan/ ;
• https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/21/nvidia-how-much-money-youd-have-if-you-invested-1000-dollars-a-decade-ago.html;

The critical sentence (which shows the scale of the opportunities we’re missing), is from the last article link listed above (CNBC):

'If you had invested $1,000 in Nvidia 10 years ago, your investment would have soared by about 22,340% and be worth around $148,226 as of Feb. 20.' 

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