The World Bank has announced the provision of 80 million U.S. dollars in financing support to the Malawian government to strengthen the country’s financial governance and execution of the fiscal year national budget.
This was disclosed in a statement dated Thursday, which said the financing that has come through the International Development Association (IDA) will “improve the resource mobilization, budget execution, and transparency of public finances to assist the achievement of results under the Malawi Public Finance Management Strategy 2023-2028.”
The World Bank’s support came a month after Malawian Finance Minister Simplex Chithyola Banda appealed to the IDA for help in responding to emergencies and natural disasters that severely impact the economy and livelihoods.
The World Bank statement said the IDA grant “complements the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement and the World Bank’s Development Policy Financing (DPO),” both of which were approved in late 2023.
Nathan Belete, World Bank country director for Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, is quoted in the statement as saying that despite a new IMF program and the recent World Bank DPO series, Malawi’s major challenges remain low foreign exchange reserves and limited fiscal space.
“The Fiscal Governance Program for Results presents a new and innovative financing instrument that will enable the government to unlock additional resources in a more predictable manner over the next five years, while also serving as a platform for harmonized planning, coordination, and utilization of resources for service delivery,” Belete said.
