A fresh call has gone to President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera to fire Minister of Agriculture Lobin Lowe for messing up the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) which has directly affected 2.5 Million poor households.
The call by a Lilongwe based fearless social and political commentator, Rhodney Salamu, comes amidst shocking revelations of ‘missing’ MK 30 Billion meant for this year’s AIP, which according to reports the Ministry of Agriculture was duped through a dubious deal with UK-based Company which was contacted to supply fertilizer to the country.
In a less than 3 minutes video clip made available to the publication, Salamu said: “President Chakwera must fire his agriculture Minister Lowe for messing up this year’s AIP and to account for MK 30 Billion meant for the program.”
He added: “Lowe has failed in many ways as Minister of Agriculture and it is very disheartening that Chakwera is still keeping him as Minister responsible for agriculture; the longer he stays as Minister for more the disaster in the agriculture sector.”
In a statement issued on Thursday signed by Ministry of Agriculture’s Principal Secretary, Sandram Maweru the Ministry dismissed the reports of being duped MK 30 Billion describing it as ‘fake’.
The Ministry claimed that the truth of the matter is that the government through Smallholder Farmers Fertilizer Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRM) made contracts with a number of companies to supply fertilizer under the AIP and only one company failed to honor the contractual agreement despite receiving a commitment fee.
“It is saddening that there is an allegation circulating in several media outlets that government was swindled MK 30 Billion on fertilizer deal, which is not true,” reads the statement in part
It further reads: “SFFRFM made contracts with a number of companies to supply 2022/23 AIP fertilizer and one of such companies was a UK based company called Barkaat Foods Limited, which has a production line with a well-known supplier, Yara Limited (UK), for an initial 25,000 metric tons of Fertilizer, SFFRM was requested to pay a commitment fee amounting to MK 750 Million to lock the price which was remitted through Eco Bank.”
“Barkaat Foods Limited failed to supply and consequently terminated the contract citing loss of the production line at Yara (UK) and that they could no longer commit to supply the fertilizer and agreed to transfer the fee back to SFFRM through the same ECO Bank.”
According to the Ministry, the advanced commitment fee payment of 727,000 u$ (equivalent to MK 750 Million) is under recall and will be received by the end of this month.
Information available on http://barkaatfoods.com/ says Barkaat Foods Limited deals with livestock business only.
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Rhodney Salamu– is a social media influencer and commentator. He uses social media platforms to comment on various issues affecting the country.
Contact Details:
Phone: +265991394800
Email:rodanysalam@outlook.com
