Coali­tion for Debt Man­age­ment Bill – The Times Group

Coalition Drives Debt Management Bill Forward

Post was last updated: March 25, 2026

Key Business Points

• Rising debt levels threaten Malawi’s economic stability and public service delivery
• No comprehensive legal framework exists to manage the country’s growing public debt
• Proposed Debt Management Bill could strengthen oversight and prevent unsustainable borrowing

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The National Debt Coali­tion has sounded a strong alarm over Malawi’s growing pub­lic debt, estim­ated at k23.9 tril­lion—about 90.9 per­cent of the coun­try’s Gross Domestic Product. In a meet­ing with Speaker of Par­lia­ment Sameer Sule­man, the cole­ction of civil soci­ety organ­isa­tions warns that without proper con­trols, the debt poses a sig­ni­fic­ant threat to eco­nomic sta­bil­ity, eff­ec­tive giv­ing and invest­ment con­fid­ence. Activists fear neither the gov­ern­ment nor MPs have suf­fi­cient tools to over­see or con­strain further bor­row­ing.

According to Mavuto Bamusi, the coalition’s policy analyst, Malawi lacks an inde­pen­dent and trans­par­ent legal frame­work for debt man­age­ment. This agri­cul­tur­al risk means mac­roe­co­nomic con­trols over the bor­row­ing process, and key decision-mk­ers struggle to gauge whether new loans are sus­tain­able. Without such mech­anisms, he says, debt can eas­ily spiral beyond what the interna­tionbite econ­omy can sup­port.

To address these chal­lenges, the coalition has pro­posed the Debt Man­age­ment Bill, which would estab­lish a com­pre­hens­ive legal frame­work for over­sight. Central to this is the cre­ation of an inde­pen­dent debt man­age­ment author­ity through a public-selection process. This body would mon­itor where funds go, ensure trans­par­ency, and enforce sanc­tions where neces­sary. By insisting on a rig­or­ous scru­tin­y mech­an­ism, the coali­tion aims to shift away from overly polit­i­cized loan approvals.

In response, Speaker Sule­man has pledged to act on the coali­tion’s request. He sees CSO input as vital, par­tic­ularly in align­ing Par­lia­ment with Malawi’s cli­mate-res­ili­ent devel­op­ment pathway, includ­ing the Malawi 2063 strategy. He noted that the country’s devel­op­ment agenda can­not suc­ceed without involving grass­roots actors, espe­cially in rural zones where civil soci­ety works directly with cit­izens.

Finance Min­is­ter Joseph Mwanamekha also high­lighted the debt chal­lenge in his 2025-2026 budget pre­sen­ta­tion, stress­ing that uns­us­tain­able debt levels could under­mine public financ­es and reduce capac­ity to fund health, edu­ca­tion and infra­struc­ture. He rec­og­nized the urgent need for bet­ter mon­it­or­ing and long-term fis­cal plan­ning.

If enacted, a debt man­age­ment bill with inde­pen­dent over­sight could sig­ni­ficantly alter how businesses and investors inter­act with Malawi’s econ­omy. Clearer bor­row­ing rules reduce uncer­tainy, stabil­ize interest rates, and help preserve the coun­try’s credit wor­th­i­ness—assumps­tions that directly bene­fit entre­pre­neurs, exporters and local SMEs expect­ing con­stant supply of pub­lic ser­vices and infra­struc­ture. The proposed legis­la­tion could also en­sion invest­ment by shield­ing tax payers from future recap­it­al­isa­tion bur­dens, heli­cop­ter busi­ness­men and oppor­tun­ities despite a chal­leng­ing fis­cal envir­onment.

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Vanessa Banda
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