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orld Bank and  the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have pledged to fully support Malawi in areas of need to address challenges the country is currently facing.

This was said on Wednesday in Washington DC, USA after President Lazarus Chakwera held discussions with World Bank managing director for operations Axel Von Trotsenburg and IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva.

Trotsenburg (L) and Chakwera after the meeting

Speaking in an interview, Trotsenburg said the Bretton Woods institution was ready to help African countries, including Malawi.

He said Chakwera’s administration has good policies that can change Malawi and transform people’s lives, as such, they need financial support.

“The President shared some of the challenges Malawi was currently facing. Malawi needs financial support now so there was need to build our partnership and brainstorm on how best we can work together to bring out results on the ground,” said Trotsenburg.

He said there was need to scale up support as Malawi is one of the many African countries that have been heavily affected by effects of  climate change and the  Covid-19 pandemic.

Said Trotsenburg “That is the reason why the World Bank has been calling for much more support to African countries; hence, this meeting with Malawi’s President is timely and crucial.”

He assured Chakwera that Malawi stands to benefit a lot and called on government to build a strong strategy that would help the people to access clean water, quality education, health systems and food security, among others.

He said the World Bank wants to be part of Malawi’s efforts to improve people’s lives.

In his remarks, the President described the two meetings are fruitful and appealed for quick support as the country is currently going through challenges.

He said the discussions centred on the benchmarks Malawi was aiming to fasttrack the disbursement of $1.5 billion (K1.5 trillion) which the World Bank approved for different projects in Malawi

Later, Chakwera held discussions on a number of key issues with Georgieva in pursuit of the stalled Extended Credit Facility negotiations.

The World Bank Group was represented by the bank’s executive director for Africa Taufila Nyamadzabo as well as World Bank vice-president for eastern and southern Africa Victoria Kwakwa.

The President’s delegation included Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Sosten Gwengwe and Minister of Foreign Affairs Nancy Temba, among others.

Chakwera was in the USA to attend the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (Unga) that opened September 13 2022.

He addressed the Unga on September 22.

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