PRESIDENT JOYCE BANDA GEARED UP TO DELIVERING REAL CHANGE TO MALAWIANS

President Joyce Banda has reiterated that her government is committed in transforming the lives of the ordinary and delivering real change to Malawians.
Speaking Monday this week at Kasiya in Lilongwe during the launch of Mtoso Cluster, which is part of her Mudzi Transformation Trust (MTT) initiative, the President said her government strives at stepping up delivery of social services to everyone in the country.
She said: “My Government is committed to delivering real change that impact on the majority of our people.”
The President underscored time is ripe for Malawians of all social and economic status to begin enjoying benefits of a sound and visionary leadership.

Banda also described the MTT as a dynamic initiative that seeks to impact on the lives of the ordinary through provision of basic and essential resources.
“With the onset of rainy season and to give chance to communities to fully concentrate on farming, Mudzi Transformation Trust will concentrate on social protection activities like rehabilitating houses whose walls have fallen down or blown out,” she highlighted.
She said the launched Mtoso cluster will transform lives of people in both urban and rural areas.
“Today we are witnessing yet another program that seeks to deliver real change to Malawians.
“Real change in economic emancipation of our people through income generation and employment at and around project impact area, particularly through skills development and support for the youths and the economically productive men and women,” the President said.
One of the beneficiaries of the project, 62 year old Meria Phiri thanked the president for coming up with the brilliant idea saying the project has changed her life.
“You can’t imagine the type of life I was living in. I hear other people fault the program but one thing I can tell you is that it has changed my life and I run short of words to thank the president,” she said tears of joy flowing out her eyes.
Mudzi Transformation Trust is on record to have built over 500 houses for poor Malawians across the country. It targets build over 200 000 houses in five years and create over 100 000 jobs.

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PRESIDENT JOYCE BANDA TO SERVE AS CHAMPION AND PATRON FOR MANDELA CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL TRUST

President Dr Joyce Banda who is dubbed Africa’s most powerful and influential woman has accepted a request from the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital Trust to serve as a Champion and Patron of the Institution.
The Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital Trust was established in 1995 and is the first charity the late Mandela established after being inaugurated as President of South Africa.
In 2007, Mr Mandela challenged his wife Graca Machel, who is the chairperson of the Trust, and Trustees of the Fund, to expand the trust’s activities into children’s health with a view to offer children of southern Africa a state of the art hospital. There is a huge demand for paediatric specialty in Africa which has only four dedicated children’s hospitals serving almost one billion people. Of this figure 430 million are children.
Construction of the Hospital commenced in August this year and the facility will open its doors towards the end of 2015.
Other Champions and Patrons include Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.
Accepting the appointment, President Banda said it is with profound humility and pleasure that she has accepted the role conferred upon her at this given time.
“It will be my honour to contribute to the realisationone of the visions of President Nelson Mandela,” the President said on December 4, 2013. Mandela died the following day.
The project will cost R750 million to design, build and equip. Half of the capital costs will be secured through a bridging loan from local institutions to be repaid through fundraising efforts and funds received from private patients admitted to the hospital.
Meanwhile South African President Jacob Zuma has pledged his government’s support to champion the project. Government will also fund the operating costs of the public patients treated at the hospital.

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MALAWI ECONOMY TO BE AMONGST THE BEST IN AFRICA DUE TO SOUND ECONOMIC POLICIES BY MALAWI PRESIDENT JOYCE BANDA

Analysts have stated that Malawi will be amongst Africa’s best economic performing countries in the next 10 years or during the 21st century according to a report by Ventures Africa.
The pan-African magazine has reported that Malawi will be amongst six top performing economies on the continent between 2012 and 2017. Quoting Ernst & Young’s 2013 Competitive Survey, Ventures Africa says Malawi, Mozambique, Angola, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Zambia are the economies that will outperform others during the period.
World analysts report that Malawi tops the list of African countries with an expected GDP growth during this period of 7 per cent, followed closely by Mozambique at 6.8 per cent.
In the third place are Angola and Rwanda with the projected GDP growth of 6.5 per cent. Ethiopia’s GDP growth is expected to be 6.3 per cent while Zambia’s is expected to hit 6.2 per cent.
Despite the negative impact of global economic crises, the size of the African economy has more than tripled since 2000, according to Ernst & Young. The continent also holds bright prospects, with many countries in Africa set to continue recording high economic growth levels. Economics have hailed the economic policies of President Joyce Banda, ” She has implemented policies that are going to stimulate growth and economic boom through agricultural, mining , tourism and industrial developments.”
According to the International Business Times website, the number of Africans living in the cities has surged dramatically and it could soon surpass that of India, which is considered to be the leader at this stage. It is believed that in the next 16 years, half of all Africans will be living in the cities. It is also understood that Africa’s middle class is set to be bigger than that of India.
The market influences of the west, which Africa is increasingly approving, are pushing down inflation and reducing sovereign debt.
Intra-African trade is changing on the continent with Africa boasting five growing trade blocs. In total, Africa has a $2 trillion economy, according to the International Business Times.

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President Joyce Banda appeal to African leaders to emulate the works of Mandela

President Dr. Joyce Banda has appealed to African leaders to put the welfare of their people at heart and work with the aim of uplifting their well-being.
Banda was speaking at Qunu in Eastern Cape on Sunday during the burial ceremony of Nelson Madiba Mandela, who all his life, was the international icon.
The President said the example set by Mandela was an admirable one which, if all leaders were to adopt, could help in transforming the nations and the lives of the people.


“Our father always promoted unity, he made sure that people do not fight and do not discriminate others because of colour, economic status and region of origin.
“Nelson Mandela also made sure that the life of the people was improved by working tirelessly and implementing programmes that directed benefited the rural poor,” explained Banda.
She added: ” I appeal to you my fellow leaders to follow the path that our fallen hero took and have the same courage that the first black South African democratically elected President had.”


Banda disclosed that all her life she admired Mandela for his dedication in trying to bring equality and justice in a better life for all.
“Africa has lost a father and the world role model. I admired his sense of humanity as always worked for the people and putting their life at heart,” she explained.
Banda then called on the African continent and the world at large to remain united even now that Mandela was dead.
“Mandela fought for unity and today he has accomplished his mission, my appeal to all nation is to keep his legacy and remain united,” she said.
In his eulogy, President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, said it was painful for Africa to lose a great man who fought for a free South Africa.
Zuma said Mandela was a fountain of wisdom, pillar of strength and a beacon of hope.
“There are number of lessons that we have learnt from father Mandela. We will remember him as man of his integrity, unity, peace and collective leadership,” Zuma said.
Kenneth Kaunda, former President of Zambia and close friend of Mandela said the late President always preached about love and unity.
“Mandela always said we must love our neighbours regardless of colour, sex and region we coming from. Let us continue with that peace by loving our friends,” he said.
Nelson Mandela was born on July 18,1918 in Qunu, Eastern Cape which is under the province of Cape Town.

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IMF Executive Board Impressed With President Joyce Banda

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has completed the third and fourth reviews of Malawi’s economic performance under a program supported by the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement after being impressed with the government of Dr Joyce Banda. As a result, the Board’s decision is to release immediate disbursement of an amount equivalent to SDR 13.01 million (about US$ 20million), bringing total disbursements under the arrangement to an amount equivalent to SDR52.06 million (about US$79.8 million).

In completing the reviews, the Board granted waivers for the nonobservance of the continuous performance criterion on new nonconcessional external debt with a maturity of more than one year, and for the nonobservance of the end-September, 2013 performance criteria on government net domestic borrowing and on the net domestic assets of the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM.). The Board also approved an extension of the arrangement by four months (to November 2015), and a rephasing of disbursements.
The three-year ECF arrangement for Malawi in the total amount of SDR 104.1 million (about US$156.6 million) was approved on July 23, 2012 (see Press Release 12/273).
Following the Board’s discussion, Mr. Naoyuki Shinohara, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair, issued the following statement:
“Malawi’s macroeconomic performance under the IMF-supported program has remained broadly satisfactory and the policy reforms initiated in May 2012 are showing positive results.The authorities are committed to closely monitor expenditure execution and financing to prevent a recurrence of the fiscal slippage that resulted in a substantial increase in domestic borrowing during the first quarter of the 2013/14 fiscal year. They stand ready to act swiftly with more stringent expenditure restraint and expenditure reprioritization to protect social spending in case downside risks to domestic revenues and external financing materialize.
“Continued tight monetary policy and fiscal restraint that Malawi goverment is pursuing is key to stabilize the exchange rate and reach the target of single digit inflation by end-2014. The Reserve Bank of Malawi is committed to improving its oversight of the financial sector in order to safeguard financial stability.IMF is happy with the government of Joyce Banda.”

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THE PRESIDENT JOYCE BANDA IS A GOD-SENT LEADER

Just to gain first hand experience of sitting and mingling with ordinary people as Dr Joyce Banda the Malawi President does, we went to visit one of the beneficiaries of Mudzi Transformation Trusts , Nyasoko. We sat down for a cup of tea and convened outside her brand new house to hear her story. Her name is Nyasoko, from Kasungu. We were visiting Nyasoko to hear what’s her experience of the Mudzi Transformation Trust but to our surprise Nyasoko remembered nothing much about the Mudzi Transformation Trust. All she said she remembered was the familiar name everyone can guess,, “I will tell you about President Joyce Banda who came here and saw my poverty and promised me a new house,

While we sipped our warm Chombe Tea, we asked Nyasoko how the whole thing happened. Nyasoko shook her head left and right tears rolling down her cheeks, ” it is like meeting an angel by the road, I never knew someone would walk into my life and talk of giving me a new home, There was this other day I sat down inside my grass thatched hut, wondering what to eat for lunch. I could hear voices of people from a far, I thought there were kids playing, so I told myself to not bother.
I had always slept in this hut for decades and I was sure I will die living this life of poverty and with no proper home. Suddenly there was a knock on the door, I asked who was it? I heard, ” it’s Joyce Banda.” I felt this could not be true, I hear a lot on the radio about a woman president called Joyce Banda and there is no way she could be knocking outside my hut. I thought someone was joking with me so I stayed put and never moved an inch. But I heard another knock again, this time it was louder and suddenly the door which was never strong fell off. I panicked so I got up and decided to go and see who was this. I started walking and then.., ”
Nyasoko paused for a moment as she wiped a tear at the corner of her left eye then continued with her story, ” I saw our President Joyce Banda and her husband standing outside asking me, ” Nyasoko we have come to visit you.” I could not believe this was real, I tried to look around for best chairs one could wish to give to her very important visitors so they could sit on, but deep down my heart I knew I had nothing however it was like Joyce Banda had already read my mind, she said I should not worry they would sit with me on the mat and thereafter visit my house to see how it looked inside. I was perplexed, this could not be true,I felt like I was day dreaming. But there she was , sitting with me alongside her husband telling me they have come to tell me I will own a new home.
Before I answered they had already entered my hut and after viewing how roughly I lived they expressed pity on me. I saw her shaking her head left and right and said ” Nyasoko, this is not a good home for you , we will build you a proper home.” When they said this I didn’t believe it, I thought these are things very often said by politicians on face value but as days passed I saw bags of cements, building materials and bricks being piled up and sooner than later work had started. I could not believe that in less than six months the house was completed and the President came to hand over a new home to me, I can only ask God to bless her.”

Nyasoko has lived an entire life in a grass thatched house, but she witnessed with her eyes the ground blossoming with a new home out of no where and with no any demands placed on her, “all I can do is to look above and ask God to bless President Joyce Banda more and more.”
We asked her if Joyce Banda is a politician, Nyasoko said, “as for me Joyce Banda is not just a politician, she is a woman with a good heart and a heart of care and you can hardly meet such people on earth that is why I will always tell everyone, don’t go astray, you have a leader sent by God in Malawi and that is Joyce Banda, God bless her.”



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President Joyce Banda (President of Malawi) meet with David Cameron (the British Prime Minister)

Mrs Joyce Banda, President of Malawi, meet with David Cameron, the British Prime Minister. She also lay a wreath at Westminster Abbey on the tombstone of David Livingstone, the legendary 19th century missionary who was one of the first foreigners to reach Lake Malawi and who campaigned for the abolition of slavery.

President Banda is meeting top leaders around the world to campaign for added trade and cooperation with her country. Next week on 28th March, she will be received by U.S. President Barack Obama, together with President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone, President Macky Sall of Senegal and Prime Minister José Maria Pereira Neves of Cape Verde.

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President Joyce Banda meets with US President Barack Obama

President Joyce Banda was meets with US President Barack Obama at the White House on 28th March, 2013. Together with Mrs Joyce Banda, Mr Obama hosted President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone, President Macky Sall of Senegal and Prime Minister José Maria Pereira Neves of Cape Verde. This invitation is a great recognition for President Joyce Banda's efforts in strengthening democracy and expanding human rights and civil liberties in her country.

The same is true for His Excellency President Sall.  There were some bumps in the road in terms of transition from the previous President, and yet, the Senegalese rose up at the grassroots level and sustained their democracy.

And Cape Verde is a real success story.  We were hearing from Prime Minister Neves about the fact that just in a few decades they have moved from a per capita income of maybe $200 a year to now $4,000 a year, and are now moving into the middle of the pack in terms of development levels because of good governance and management."

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