Locked out of banks and racing against time, Malawian traders are turning to shadowy middlemen to pay foreign suppliers — and some are losing life‑changing sums. With banks limiting withdrawals to as little as $200 and taking weeks to process requests, ordinary businesspeople are being pushed into risky, unregulated deals. What began as a shortfall in foreign currency has become a conduit for fraud, leaving shop owners stranded abroad, trucks unpaid for and millions of kwacha vanished.
Evelyn Kapandansalu remembers the day her business stopped being predictable. For a decade she ran a steady cross‑border trade: fly to China, place orders, bring back clothing to sell in Blantyre. Between 2019 and 2021 she could apply for $6 000 or more at her bank and have suppliers paid within days.
“It was that fast,” she says. “The bank could pay suppliers on time without compromise.” On August 22 2025, a friend put her in touch with a man who claimed to have a foreign‑currency account and could pay her Chinese supplier directly. He sent documents that looked convincing.
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Trusting the paperwork, Kapandansalu deposited K14 million, then another K11 250 000, into the account he provided. He promised to settle the supplier and gave her a receipt. Confident the goods were paid for, she flew to China to collect them.
At a stopover in Tanzania she received a message: the money had not been reflected with the supplier. She called the middleman; he reassured her and urged her to proceed with the documents he had issued. In China, the supplier told a different story: the payment had never arrived and the paperwork was fake.
Kapandansalu spent 11 days stranded, sleeping on borrowed couches and crying every night. She returned to Malawi without merchandise and without K25 250 000. She reported the fraud to police; months later, she says, nothing meaningful has happened.
Grounded and regretting the day she lost her money, Kapandansalu is struggling and her sweat of several years has yielded misery; she can no longer go to China. “I had nothing remaining to continue with my business. I borrowed some cash from a friend just to keep the business going.
It is difficult because I am now buying within the country and selling at my shop,” she said. Kapandansalu’s loss is not an isolated incident. Hamza Chihaye, who was trying to buy a truck from Ireland, followed a similar path.
Banks could not supply the euros his supplier demanded, so he accepted an online lead promising to facilitate the payment. He sent K2 million, then K25 million. The intermediary acknowledged receipt and promised to pay the supplier; then the calls stopped.
“In fact, I was processing that payment for a friend. I told him I would find a middleman on his behalf and I paid, not knowing I would be in huge trouble,” he said. Chihaye reported the fraud to Fiscal Police on August 26, but his attempts to recover funds have been frustrated by delays; at times he had to provide transport for officers to follow up.
He has since sold his car for K17 million and land for K6 million to raise money to repay the person who wanted to buy the truck. “The total is K27 million. I am almost closing my electronics shop in Mangochi to cover the gap.
Mentally I am affected; I cannot focus. I am always running up and down to find money to repay,” he said. National Police Deputy Spokesperson Alfred Chimthere says officers have received multiple reports of similar scams, including cases involving K152 million and K27 million.
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