Malawi needs to scale up its public investment by 100% to $1.2 billion (about K912 billion) to double its per capita income, as advised by The African Development Bank (AfDB), in its paper titled Model for Growth and Development Planning: Malawi.

The amount, which is 65% of the 2018/19 National Budget of K1.4 trillion and about 21% of gross domestic product (GDP) will enable the country to boost the average income earned per person from less than $500 (about K370 000) to about $1 000 (K740 000), according to the advisory report.

The tip follows an analysis by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that commended Malawi for infrastructure financing and budget for investment, but described other measures of public investment as ‘relatively poor’. The report was, however, hopeful that the country will perform better in the next 5 years if responsible authorities can consider the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).