MALAWI: Fintech innovations & more – 13th Aug 2024

Muli bwanji from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Malawi Update from the 13th of August twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Malawi.

To start off, political parties have been electing their newest party leaders in readiness for the twenty-fivee lections.

Locals have their eyes on the Democratic Progressive Party (or the DPP) as it will be holding its Convention in Blantyre on Sunday the 18th to elect its leaders. George Chaponda, the Chairperson of the DPP, said they are expecting a delegation of 2,600 members from across the country to convene at the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa Hall for the conference. He said all positions will be up for grabs, except for the Presidential seat, which is currently being held by former president Peter Mutharika. Chaponda said Mutharika will go unopposed as he is the only one who collected the presidential nomination papers.

Another political party, the ruling Malawi Congress Party (or MCP) held its convention last Thursday in Lilongwe in what local media described as a free and fair election. The results of the election were shared on Friday the 9th.

Among others, Catherine Gotani Hara, who is commonly known for her role as Speaker of the Parliament, became the first woman in Malawi’s history to hold the position of MCP Vice President.

Meanwhile, in the latest political development, the People’s Party (or PP), exited from the Tonse Alliance. The Tonse Alliance was formed when nine political parties including the MCP, PP and United Transformation Movement (or UTM) came together to remove the then-ruling party, the DPP, from the government. The Alliance started falling apart when one of its founders, Saulos Chilima, the late Vice President and Leader of the UTM, died in a plane crash in June.

Five parties have since left the Alliance, leaving MCP with three partners. Local media predicts that the remaining three political parties will leave the Alliance by twenty twenty-five, when locals will be voting for a new president.

The twenty twenty-four–twenty twenty-five school calendar is now out.

On Thursday the 8th, the Ministry of Education released the twenty twenty-four–twenty twenty-five academic calendar. According to the statement, the first term will open on the 16th of September and close on the 20th of December, after which, students will have a two-week holiday. The second term will open on the 6th of January and close on the 11th of April, and will be followed by another two-week holiday. Then, schools will have their third and final term from the 28th of April to the 25th of July.

The academic calendar applies to all primary and secondary school students but is subject to change for students who will sit for the national exams, such as those in Standard 8, Form 2, and Form 4.

Perhaps the news will also help put to rest rumors that Form 4 students would have to resit their Malawi School Certification of Education (or MSCE) exams, which they wrote in June. A statement circulating on social media said the MSCE exams were canceled due to some mishaps, such as cheating during the exams and failure of the exam papers to reach some schools on time.

However, the Malawi National Examinations Board wrote a statement denying and dismissing the claims. Their post simply took the circulating statement and wrote “fake” on it in bold, capital letters in red ink.

There are new developments for tertiary schools too. For instance, after hosting its annual Mental Health Week from Monday the 5th to Friday the 9th, the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (or MUBAS) is now hosting its second annual Research and Innovation Week from Monday the 12th to Wednesday the 14th. It is being held under the theme Research and Innovation for Wealth Creation.

Madalitso Sakama, the Head of Research and Innovation at MUBAS, said the event will help boost the country’s economic growth by using innovation to address local challenges.

Local news said the event comprises showcases from the university’s students and has delegates from twelve African countries including Kenya, Ethiopia, and South Africa.

Meanwhile, the University of Malawi (or UNIMA) is getting ready to host its second edition of the UNIMA Theatre Festival from the 22nd to the 24th of November at the school’s premises in Zomba.

In readiness for that, the university put out a Call for Participation inviting talented artists in Theatre, Theatre for Children and Young People, Comedy, and Performance Art and Dance, to be a part of the festival. According to their statement, which is being shared widely on WhatsApp groups, UNIMA is looking for applications from professional and amateur theatre groups and companies, university theatre groups, secondary school drama clubs, as well as solo artists, from now until the 30th of August.

We have the application form in our show notes in case you’d like to apply.

In development news, the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre now has a Clinical Research Excellence and Training Open Resource Center (or Creator). It was opened on Wednesday the 7th in the presence of President Lazarus Chakwera.

The launch comprised the unveiling of a five-storey building which was constructed by the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme. The building has a digital library, a health research innovation hub, and a Postgraduate Resource Centre.

Creator is open to both professionals and medical students who would like to conduct research on pressing local health issues.

Moving on, a local telecommunication company, Telekom Networks Malawi (or TNM), launched a range of fintech solutions that will help increase their customers’ access to cash flow. The new solutions include a Micro Merchant Wallet which, Michel Herbet – TNM’s Chief Executive Officer – said will help small business owners access money to make payments without needing to carry cash around. He said this creates a safe transaction environment for both the business and its customers.

Another innovation, the Mpamba Quick Pay solution, helps customers make payments using QR codes. Herbert said that customers can use their smartphones to scan QR codes at checkout points in grocery stores to make payments, instead of paying with cash.

With such innovations, it makes sense that banks have lost about 700,000 customers to mobile network operators in the past decade. These statistics come from a study that was done by FinMark Trust - an independent non-profit trust that promotes financial inclusion and regional financial integration. The study also said that Malawi has experienced a decline in banked adults, from 27% in twenty fourteen to 13% in twenty twenty-four. On the flip side, mobile network operators experienced a boom during the same period, from 18% to 73%.

The study said that this boom is because mobile network operators facilitate the inclusion of customers from both urban and rural backgrounds.

Wilson Banda, the Reserve Bank Governor, has urged banks to become innovative. He thinks they might become irrelevant if they don’t up their game.

In trending news, a prominent football player, Promise Kamwendo, was suspended and is no longer registered as such.

On Thursday the 8th, the Football Association of Malawi (or FAM) wrote a letter to the Super League of Malawi following a complaint from a local football club, the FCB Nyasa Big Bullets, saying that Kamwendo had signed a transfer deal from one local football club, the Premier Bet Dedza Dynamos FC, to another local football club, the Mighty Mukuru Wanderers FC, despite having signed another transfer deal with them.

As a result of the confusion, FAM decided to suspend Kamwendo while they investigate the issue.

Despite this confusion, there are hopes that local football will improve as thirty-five referees are currently being trained on how to use the Video Assistant Referee (better known as VAR). The training is called the FIFA Member Associations Elite Referees Course, and it will be hosted for five days in Blantyre, starting from Tuesday the 13th.

Patrick Kamanga, the Chairperson of the Referees Committee at the Football Association of Malawi, said that this is the first time Malawi has hosted a training where referees will be taught to use modern technology when officiating games. He revealed that only two Malawian referees had the skills to handle VAR. They had to attend a course in South Africa to learn the skills.

Kamanga said the training will also touch on the technical and physical aspects of being a good referee.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

Are you a long-time listener or a long time hanger-arounder in Malawi? Want to participate in the show? Well, this is your chance! We're looking for listener anecdotes or tips about living in Malawi to share with the community of listeners. Restaurant recommendations, tours you have enjoyed? Cultural activities? Anything you would want to share we’ll be happy to hear! Let’s chat! Email us at info@rorshok.com with a relevant subject line.

Pitani bwino!