Secretary to the Treasury Betchani Tchereni urged engineers and structural planners in the country to develop top-notch infrastructure designs capable of withstanding harsh weather conditions.
Tchereni made this plea during the opening of the African Road Maintenance Funds Association of Southern Africa Focal Group (ASAFG) in Blantyre, hosted by the Roads Fund Administration (RFA).
He emphasized the importance of constructing durable and weather-resistant infrastructure to mitigate the need for extensive reconstruction efforts following natural disasters, highlighting the significant financial burden placed on the government in such situations.
“Engineers and planners ought to be on the top of their game for the country to excel.
When we are reconstructing or doing maintenance, it means we are still investing the work we did previously and this is not progress.
“Cyclone Freddy gave us valuable lessons, among which is the need for durable infrastructure. Imagine the country will need US$900 million to rework on bridges, roads and other facilities which were destroyed by the cyclone in 2023,” said Tchereni.
Tchereni, therefore, reminded Malawians that the country needs innovations in the manner how it finances its projects, saying the country cannot continue relying on the same ways of raising funds for development.
On his part, Board Chairperson for RFA in Malawi, Matthews Chikankheni, said the meeting was aimed at sharing best practices and experiences from different member countries.
Chikankheni said RFA has benefitted a lot from such meetings, citing some knowledge on how to run toll gates which was borrowed from countries like Zambia and Mozambique while others also keep on learning from Malawi when it comes to road fuel levy management, among others.
“RFA continues to make progress despite facing some challenges. We will shortly establish other two toll gates, Lilongwe-Mchinji and Lilongwe-Salima roads. All these are aimed at serving Malawians better,” Chikankheni said.
Meanwhile, ASAFG Chairperson Nkekeletse Makara has called for serious investment in all the RFAs, saying despite other modes of transport, road transport is used by 90 percent of people in Africa and 80 percent of goods are also transported through roads in the same continent.
“We need to fulfill the African Union Agenda of ensuring connectivity and free trade but these can only happen when there are good roads and bridges networks in the African continent.
“I agree with the Secretary to the Treasury that reconstruction is expensive. Most importantly is to come up with durable infrastructure that can stand the test of time,” said Makara.
This year’s meeting is the fourth to be held in Malawi, following other meetings which were held in years 2011, 2016 and 2019.
