By Mc Donald Chapalapata, a Contributor

Limbe Leaf Tobacco Company Limited (Limbe Leaf) last week handed over two new school blocks and 120 desks worth K81 million to Kanjoka Primary School in rural Kasungu district.

The school, located in Lisasadzi area in Kasungu has a current enrollment of 1,112 pupils of which 589 are boys and 523 are girls.

Limbe Leaf has been investing in the school since 2017 to facelift the rural primary school to be one of the model schools in Kasungu district.

Among others, a Library was built in the 2017 season worth K27.5million and stocked with curricular and literal books in 2018 for use by the school and the surrounding community. In 2019 renovation works were done to the headmaster’s office worth K26.7 million. In 2020 a 2-classroom block worth K68.8 million has been refurbished and furnished with 120 desks worth K13 million.

Handing over the 2-classroom block and the 120 desks, Limbe Leaf Director of Corporate Affairs Febbie Chikungwa said through the Company’s Agricultural Labor Practices (ALP) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs, Kanjoka was one of the schools identified to benefit from projects that address issues of child labour.

“By providing a conducive learning environment, it is a proven fact that more children enroll and remain in school instead of the fields where they could be exposed to child labour working in fields. As a company we strongly oppose children working in tobacco fields,” said Chikungwa.

She noted that the solar installation to the library in 2019/20 has had a profound effect on the school and the community at large saying since Kanjoka Primary School is located in an area with limited and minimal access to electricity, students from the community have been able to come and study after hours leading to some students from the surrounding community day secondary school who were using the library at night to qualify for university education.

“All Limbe Leaf CSR projects currently focus on promotion of livelihoods through multiple sources of income and strict adherence to labour practices.  Some of the company’s projects to complement the ALP program include: provision of safe water, support for women groups, support of grassroot sports, primary education infrastructure and learning materials and sponsorship for university students. Through the Company’s ALP program, projects that promote primary education are central as evidenced by what we have done for Kanjoka Primary School,” said Chikungwa.  

Asked about the future of tobacco in Malawi, Chikungwa said, as long as Malawi produces a compliant and traceable crop, in a sustainable manner, there is a great future for Malawi tobacco. She said that is why, to ensure compliance, among other initiatives, adherence to labour practices on tobacco farms is one of Limbe Leaf’s priority.

Speaking when she received the donation on behalf of the government, Minister of Education Agness NyaLonje thanked Limbe Leaf for transforming Kanjoka primary school to a model school in Kasungu District.

“We are grateful to Limbe Leaf for supporting governments efforts in providing quality education to its citizens and what you have done here by transforming this primary school is very commendable. As a Ministry, we are looking at a permanent pupil-classroom ratio. We need to get it to 60 pupils per classroom. For this school, Limbe Leaf has greatly contributed to the attainment of that ratio. We would like other companies to emulate what you have done,” said NyaLonje.

Malawi Stock Exchange (MSE) listed FDH Bank plc has described the newly introduced Ufulu525 money transfer platform under FDH Mobile Banking as a progressive financial inclusion solution.

In an interview, FDH Bank Plc Digital Sales Senior Manager Yamikani Mbawala said that in the age of innovation and with the surge of the Covid-19 pandemic, digital solutions have become critical to progress at all levels.

“By dialing *525# or using FDH WhatsApp Banking to access Ufulu525, customers can instantly send money to any phone number ensuring ease of transactions, continuation of business and limiting the need for people to physically move to and queue in banking halls,” said Mbawala.

“On top of the ease of instant transfers and the ease of self-registration, customers on Ufulu525 can enjoy other benefits and services like access to Classic FDH Mastercard, bill payments and merchant payments,” he added

“As an inclusive homegrown bank that understands the financial needs of Malawians at all levels, FDH Bank plc has over 5000 Banki Pakhomo Agents across the county and 91 ATMs that allow customers on Ufulu525 to access funds at ease and from everywhere,” explained Mbawala.

FDH Bank plc is a leading financial institution with an array of digital solutions and a footprint of 51 service centres across the country and is a subsidiary of a leading financial group FDH Financial Holdings Limited.

By Mc Donald Chapalapata, a Contributor

National Bank of Malawi (NBM) plc has partnered with Malawi Housing Corporation (MHC) to collect payments from its clients on the bank’s digital platforms.

NBM plc Head of Digital Financial Services, William Kaunda, said in an interview yesterday that apart from collecting different payments over the counter, the bank will also be collecting the payments on its digital platforms starting with its Mo626ice mobile banking platform before adding the internet banking platform Banknet360 and Mo626 Digital+.

“We want to make it easy for customers of both institutions to make payments using our digital channels so that we decongest our banking halls and also considering that we are still in the Covid-19 pandemic, it will be safer for people to make these payments using these digital channels,” said Kaunda.

MHC Public Relations Officer, Ernestina Lunguzi, said making payments through the Mo626ice platform will provide a convenient mode of remitting bills and other payments on the part of their customers as well as improving revenue collection and reconciliation.

“Our customers will avoid bank queues and travel distances but will also save time. This is also coming in the wake of the Corporation being sensitive to Covid-19 prevention measures. It will also propel debtors to pay quickly for services,” said Lunguzi.

Explaining the process flow of the payments, Kaunda said after a customer has dialed *626# on their mobile phone, they will be asked to select their preferred account and enter their PIN after which they should go to the ‘make payment’ service option where they can select Malawi Housing Corporation.

Kaunda said that for first time users, prior to making a payment, the customer is required to register their MHC Debtor ID on the Mo626ice platform. To do this, once the customer has logged in to Mo626ice, the customer is required to select the option to register their MHC Debtor ID and proceed to input the Debtor ID which starts with “SRG” followed by numbers.  

He said that after successfully registering the Debtor ID, the customer can then initiate payment by selecting MHC payments under the Make Payments menu within the platform.

Customers can make payments towards Ground Rent, Hostel Rent, House Application Fee, House Rent, and many more.

Two of Malawi’s mobile companies, Airtel and TNM have announced their profits and dividends to their shareholders with Airtel externalizing about K23 billion while TNM will be investing in rural masses.

Airtel made a whopping K32 billion in profits for last year and will pay its shareholders K23 billion, the biggest chunk of it going to the majority shareholder Bharti Airtel with 80% shareholding while a paltry 20% is held by local shareholders. 

On the other hand, TNM made a profit of K7.7 billion after tax, a decline by 41% from the previous year of K13.2 billion and declared a dividend of K4 billion to its shareholders. All TNM shareholders are local with conglomerate Press Corporation plc holding the majority shareholding of 41.31%.

While Airtel will be externalizing the profits through the dividends, TNM plc plans to continue investing the money in the country through its newly launched ‘Mudzi Wathu’ initiative which the company will give back to the communities for development totaling to almost K1 billion of the accruing annual revenue.

An economic analyst who did not want to be named said the country needs to review shareholding of multi-national companies in relation to externalization of money meant for development of the country.

“We need to come up with a deliberate policy on the shareholding of these multi-national companies. For example, 20 % local shareholding in Airtel Malawi is too little. Look at the profits that Airtel has made, they will externalize 80% of the K23 billion profit through payment of dividends, it is Malawi that will suffer in the end. ” he said.

“Look what TNM has done. It is using the profits made by investing in rural communities for development projects; now imagine if the money that Airtel was going to externalize was used for local development in rural areas, this country would be developed. It is time we stand up and fight for our resources,” he added.