Three Illovo wholesalers are now proud owners of brand new Nissan NP200 pick-ups after emerging as lucky winners in the on-going ‘Iponyereni kwakuya ndi Illovo’ promotion.

During the first grand prize draw on Monday, three lucky winners namely Dorothy Dickson of Nalifase Shop in Balaka, Henry Moyo of Mbamoyo Traders in Kasungu and Kondwani Mkonongo of Shileke Investments at Songwe in Karonga became the first three wholesalers to win the brand new vehicles each.

Speaking during the draw, Illovo Sugar Malawi Managing Director Lekani Katandula said the promotion aims at exciting their customers and consumers during this lean season when agricultural activities take over.

“This is why we are giving out prizes to support them throughout this period. I would like to emphasis to those who may not have participated or have participated but have not yet been lucky, to say that the promotion is still on-going. There are 5 more weeks to go and we have 3 more brand new Nissan NP200 pickups, 132 more bicycles, 216 more bags of fertilizer and various branded items left up for grabs. Therefore it’s not too late to participate,” said Katandula.

He said so far since launching the promotion on 9^th October 2020, they have, through weekly draws, in store activations and mystery shopper activations managed to give away a number of exciting prizes which include 84 Bicycles, 144 Bags of fertilizer as well as 1,093 Lucky winners walking away with various branded items.

The promotion which started in October and is expected to finish in December 2020, has been categorized in four namely stockists, grocers and table tops, mystery shopper activation and supermarket promotion.

Another grand prize draw is expected to be conducted in December where three more lucky winners will win three more brand new Nissan NP200 pick-ups.

The whole promotion is valued at K100 million.

Listed FDH Bank plc has entered into a massive K2 billion partnership with Innobuild Private Limited that will foster growth for Malawians by facilitating acquisition of land.

FDH Bank plc Head of Personal and Investment Banking Kawawa Msapato said as a homegrown institution that believes in growth, its partnership with Innobuild will support Malawians to acquire land through credit facilities worth K2 Billion to empower them to acquire land in Lilongwe.            

“The partnership will enable a good number of Malawians to own land in a prime location in line with the bank’s mission of facilitating and making growth possible.”

“The offer is open to both FDH Bank plc and non-FDH Bank plc customers and interested customers are required to secure a land allocation with Innobuild who will then recommend them to the bank for a credit facility,” said Msapato.

He said as a key player in the financial sector, listed on the Malawi Stock Exchange, and a partner in the development of the country, FDH Bank plc believes that supporting initiatives such as this will in the long term foster growth and economic empowerment.

Innobuild Private Limited Chief Executive Officer Billy Jonathan Chiwotha said they observed the land access challenges being faced by Malawians in prime locations hence the partnership with FDH Bank plc.

“Some of the challenges that Malawians are being faced is the access to the actual land as most of the prime land is already largely occupied by a few individuals thereby hindering other Malawians from access despite having financial ability to acquire it.”

“There is also lack of financial ability to acquire the land bearing in mind of general levels of income of most Malawians and comparing with the prevailing prices of land in prime locations; most of them cannot afford to amass the needed upfront payments for such land hence denying them a chance to own land,” said Chiwotha.

He said in light of the challenges, Innobuild solicited solutions that will make it easier for Malawians to own land in prime locations in our cities and approached FDH Bank plc to partner it in providing financial backing to Malawians to acquire land.

“Innobuild envisages that through this partnership with FDH Bank plc more Malawians will be able to own land,” said Chiwotha.

By Mc Donald Chapalapata, a Contributor

Premier mobile phone provider, TNM plc has been named the headline sponsor for the Blantyre-Lilongwe tourism walk which is meant to raise funds for training and certification of tour guides in the country.

TNM plc Acting Chief Executive Officer Arnold Mbwana said in an interview yesterday that, TNM, being a Malawian company is proud to be associated with the promotion of tourism in the country hence the sponsorship.

“TNM plc is a truly Malawian company and we thought the training and certification of tour guides is one of the best ways of promoting tourism in the country and that is why we came in with our K2 million sponsorship,” said Mbwana.

The walk will start on Saturday 21^st November 2020 with 10 people who will walk all the way to Lilongwe and are expected to cover the 314 kilometre distance in 10 days.

Mbwana said they will dress the 10 Walkers in TNM colours both on the first day and the arrival day in Lilongwe.

“We will also have our TNM staff and other joining the 10 walkers at Bunda Turn off in Lilongwe on Day 10 which is Monday 30^th November 2020 up to Lilongwe Gateway Mall where our heroes will receive a thunderous welcome by different dignitaries,” said Mbwana.

One of the organizers of the walk Innocent Kaliati from The Eagle’s Eye Malawi, hailed TNM plc for the platinum sponsorship and called on other individuals and companies to support the event.

“We are looking at raising K7 million to train about 100 Tour Guides but if we can raise more, it means we will train and certify more Tour Guides. Each of the people who will walk from Blantyre to Lilongwe are expected to contribute K150,000 towards the event, so companies or individuals can choose to sponsor one or two walkers,” said Kaliati.

He explained that economic benefits of tourism such as generation of foreign currency and creation of employment opportunities will remain a pipedream if the country lacks trained and certified tour guides.

“What qualifies them to be tour guides in their areas is the local knowledge that they have and this contributes to the varied service standards that characterize this informal sector. For them this is how they earn a living. It is against this background that we decided to help these guides acquire a more standardized training but most importantly, certification of their skills,” said Kaliati.

United General Insurance (UGI) Friday awarded six best students in the Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) Vice Chancellors’ excellence awards.

UGI Chief Executive Officer Bywell Chiwoni who presented the awards together with MUST Vice Chancellor Professor Address Malata said UGI is committed to nurturing Malawi’s effort to rise as an international innovation and technology hub hence their support to the Vice Chancellors’ students excellence awards.

“UGI’s role is to help enable these students’ success through our initiatives and resources. That is why last year we launched a three year K15 million sponsorship here out of which K9 million was set in motion to support needy students to ensure that well that the well deserving students acquire their education and fully contribute to our nation’s economic development through advancement in science and technology.”

“In the same pot, UGI allocated K6million over 3 years for the annual competition, which seeks to stimulate the creative thinking capacities of our students to apply innovation and technology to tackle issues and challenges related to our everyday lives,” said Chiwoni.

Chiwoni said he was confident that the six students namely Nathan Kapelemera, Kingsley Posiyano, Precious Chigamba, Louis Kandiado, Paul Harawa and Solomon Ngwira, will play a vital role in realizing the promise of innovation and technology development in Malawi.

“As UGI, we are proud to be associated with this scholarship. UGI is the innovation leader in the General Insurance Industry with our AutoServe, AutoShield and AutoPrice products, Malawi was the second country after South Africa, to introduce telematics in Southern Africa. Neighbouring countries such as Zimbabwe are learning and adopting what we had implemented in 2017. This is why we are in full support of this initiative,” said Chiwoni.

Malata thanked UGI for responding positively to sponsor the Vice Chancellors’ student’s excellence awards.

“The students receiving these excellence awards emerged the best in their programmes in engineering, ICT and medical related programmes. These awards have a way of motivating one to aim higher and propel you to greater levels of academic excellence. It is my hope that the awardees we have today, will experience the same,” said Malata.

She advised fellow students to emulate the example set by the six students.

A representative of the awardees, Precious Chigamba, a Fourth year Medical microbiology student thanked UGI for the awards and also hailed their lecturers for imparting knowledge in them.

“We promise to keep working hard,” said Chigamba.

The students got miniatures and K380, 000 cash each from UGI.

Malawi Gaming Board has not renewed contracts for two of its senior members of the management team, it has been learnt.

The board of directors has declined to renew the contract of Ted Nandolo, 71, who was Director of Social Services and Dave Saweruzika, 63, who was Director of Operations.

Malawi Gaming Board Chairman Benard Ndau neither confirmed nor denied the developments when contacted for comment.

“Contractual issues are private in nature. The board of directors will look at these issues and inform the concerned individuals of its decision,” said Ndau.

Insiders said Nandolo, a former Chief Executive Officer for Blantyre City Council, asked the board for the renewal of his contract despite reaching the mandatory retirement age of 60.

On the other hand Saweruzika also wanted a contract extension despite reaching retirement age.

Malawi Gaming Board Chief Executive Officer Foster Mulumbe and Company Secretary and Head of legal Services Ofa Alide are yet to know their fate on the extension of their contracts which also expired.

Inside sources said  Malawi Gaming Board was taken as a ‘dumping ground’ for people who fell out of grace with the government during the past DPP regime.

For example, Mulumbe was sacked at Admarc where he was Chief Executive Officer over his involvement in the procurement of K30 billion maize from Zambia.

Nandolo too had his contract not renewed at Blantyre City Council and was appointed Director of Social services at Malawi Gaming Board, a position which is not found in the Board’s organogram.