Maize hauliers threaten to park trucks over pay

Transporters hired to haul maize from Zambia have threatened to park their trucks in protest over the Malawi Government’s failure to pay for the services since their engagement last December. In an interview yesterday, Transporters Association of Malawi director Frank Banda said transporters are currently demoralised. Under the contract, Malawian transporters are supposed to bring in 100 000 metric tonnes (MT) of the staple grain and so far have delivered 15 000MT to National Food Reserve Agency (NRFA).

Banda claimed that Zambian transporters, who were contracted to transport another 100 000MT, are being paid in dollars, but Malawians are not being paid although they are also incuring costs. He said: “How can they prioritise foreign transporters paying them US dollars while refusing to pay us? We have been using our own resources for the exercise “We are crossing borders at our own cost in US dollars.

We are accessing money for toll fees and other costs because of black market which is very expensive. Holding our payment is very sad and disappointing.” The transporters have since written NRFA requesting payment and a meeting with the World Bank which is funding the government to purchase the maize with $77 million (about K134.8 billion). In December last year, sources told The Nation that the World Bank had provided about $45 million (around K78.7 billion) of the amount.

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Ministry of Finance spokesperson Williams Banda did not pick our calls yesterday and was yet to respond to our WhatsApp message by the time we went to press last evening. On the other hand, NFRA chief executive officer George Macheka, who said the agency and the transporters communicate “now and again” on the progress, asked for time to go through the transporters’ letter before responding. The maize deal was initiated by President Peter Mutharika in September last year when he contacted his Zambian counterpart Hakainde Hichilema for the supply of 200 000MT of maize to address food shortages due to the drought that hit the country in the 2024-25 farming season. In October last year, Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Decentralisation Joseph Mwanamvekha said the ministry through the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee established that more than four million people needed food assistance.

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