By Yamikani Sabola
Nsanje, Mana: Nsanje District Council wants to explore possibility of entering into partnerships with private investors to set up a meat processing industry in the district to ensure that livestock farmers have a reliable market for their produce.
Speaking when National Planning Commission (NPC) visited the district on Friday to deliver Malawi 2063 (MW2063) vision documents at the council, Chief Planning and Development Officer, Smith Mnenula said livestock farmers in the district are not getting good returns because of poor prices offered by vendors.
He said MW2063, a successor blueprint to Vision 2020, was in line with Nsanje council’s plans of utilising the district’s natural resource endowments, such as livestock, to create wealth.
We are looking into ways of opening up a solar powered meat processing factory through public-private partnerships to ensure that livestock farmers are getting better returns from their produce through value addition,” Nnenula said.
He said MW2063 would help the Council in shaping their District Development Plans (DDPs) and ensure that all projects and programmes in the district are aligned to the vision.
“MW2063 vision is very encouraging because it is demonstrating departure from poverty reduction to wealth creation and job creation. That is the direction that Nsanje District Council wants to take. As such, the vision will provide us a framework for planning and implementing our projects in the district,” the Officer said.
Public Relations and Communications Manager for NPC, Thom Khanje said Councils were one of the critical players in the implementation of MW2063.
“The Malawi 2063 vision was formulated with coordination from National Planning Commission but the actual implementation will be done at various levels starting from the district level, to the sector level, up to the national level so it is important for the district councils to be very familiar with the vision,” he said.
Khanje said the Vision was a collection of Malawians’ aspirations hence it was the responsibility of duty bearers, including councils, to implement development programmes that Malawians want. The vision titled ‘An Inclusively Wealthy and Self-reliant Nation’, among others, is aimed at propelling the country to upper-middle-income status by 2063
