Sang N.

How can a nation so rich in minerals remain so poor?

Rutile Crystals, mined in Brazil at the Novo Horizante mine at Bahia. Rights: Cobalt123

We could ask the same question to Namibia, Guinea, Nigeria, Mozambique, the DRC or Niger, and no doubt some interesting responses would be made.

But this questions is for Malawians to ponder, especially now that the Elections are just around the corner. How can a nation so rich in minerals remain so poor?

Throughout Malawi’s democracy, all the multiparty governments – which have occupied the driving seat – have in one form or another promised to use Malawi’s mineral resources for development purposes. But government after government always fail to fulfill their promises.

So what is really going on?

The simple answer is Greed and Corruption.

Government after government that comes into power fail to fully realise the potential of Malawi’s mineral wealth because people get greedy. And when they do that they receive backhanders and bribes, in exchange for poorly negotiated contracts that disproportionately favour investors.

You might blame investors, and ask why do we attract crooked investors? I don’t know the answer to that, but the fact remains that our mining sector has been a train-wreck of poorly negotiated deals.

Picture this: if the confirmed estimated value of a mineral resource underneath a particular concession with reference to current global market prices, is said to be worth $20 billion, what portion of that resource should be due to Malawi? And who gets to decide how much of our own resource we can keep?

It doesn’t make sense, under any sensible rule book – let alone after all the poverty Malawians have endured, to then say Malawi should be entitled to 15% of Royalties, and the company mining the concession should only pay $1 million for a license. Or that there should be a 10 year Tax-free breathing space. That’s simply not helpful for us as a country.

Do you think if there was Gold, Uranium or Diamonds in the US, Canada, or China, a Malawian company that bids for a contract to mine that resource would be given a 75% interest?

Even if the Investor who comes to invest in Malawi has has shareholders and Capital costs, they will probably be generating profits upwards of $200million to $300 million in no time, so unless you’ve got something wrong with your head, you’re literally throwing away the poor country’s valuable resource for a pittance, when you negotiate a bad contract.

Mukutaya chuma cha dziko, and you should be ashamed.

Michael Usi’s campaign speech in Ndirande on 11 August 2025

So unfortunately, those are the type of contracts which our leaders have been signing so far. Contracts that are exploitative, one sided, and which do not proportionally benefit Malawians in any way.

And let me qualify the above statement. If you audit all the companies which have operated in Malawi’s mining sector, at least since the dawn of multiparty democracy, you’ll find that even with the profit-shifting and cunning tricks of inflating losses, and hiding sources of revenue, that they were all very profitable. They did extremely well from working in Malawi. Some actually did too well, they exited Malawi before wind got out about how well they had actually done.

This, unfortunately has been the story of Malawi, and it is one of the main reasons why we are still poor, despite having some valuable natural resources.

So brothers and sisters, on 16th September, please think carefully about who you will vote for, and why. Do you want the same lies and deceptions, or do you want true and meaningful change? And when I say change I don’t mean replacing one set of thieves, with a well-known cabal of previous set of thieves.

Nobody has to know who you will vote for, just please let us not make the same mistake we’ve been making since 1994.

This issue is urgent.

If we vote for the wrong candidates on 16th September, nothing will change. Malawi will remain poor, and the majority of Malawians will remain in poverty. The corrupt politicians – who you’re yet again blindly trusting, will continue to sign deceptive corrupt deals with foreign corporations. Ndi ku ma lemela, inu mukugona ndi njala. They’ll continue to lie to you about why they haven’t fulfilled their promises. They’ll continue to steal from you the people, and get rich. And their children will amass unexplained wealth, and continue to be educated in private schools. But your children will continue to live a life of hardship. They’ll continue to suffer, failing to get into good schools, failing to get good jobs. Or failing to raise capital for business.

And you, their parents, will continue to beg. Is that the kind of life that you really want?

The choice is yours.

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