Malawi’s Export Development Fund says it hopes to generate around US$300 million (approx R5,250 billion/520 billion Kwacha) per annum in four to five years time. The facility is scheduled for completion next year.

The Nyasa Times reported on 19 September 2024 that construction is underway at the facility, which has been “designed to meet European and global standards, producing, extracting, exporting and selling products including active pharmaceutical ingredients to the world market.”

The optimistic revenue projections were shared by Export Development Fund MD Fredrick Chanza with officials attending the ground-breaking ceremony. He said the economic impact of the project would be “quite huge”.

The project is being implemented by MMC Laboratories Limited in partnership with Mbabzi Estate, the EDF and the Malawi Agriculture and Industrial Development Corporation.

The project is being implemented by MMC Laboratories Limited in partnership with Export Development Fund, Mbabzi Estate and Malawi Agriculture and Industrial Investment Corporation.

The Nyasa Times reported that Secretary for Trade and Industry in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Christina Zakeyo, said the project would benefit local farmers, providing them with access to markets, creating employment and reduce reliance on tobacco as an export commodity.

We are looking at diversification of exports as well as import substitution because we have been importing most of these by-products but now they will be produced in Malawi and will be exported to the region as well as the developed world like the US and the UK," she said.

Chanza said: "The impact will be quite huge. This project in the next two to four years has potential to bring into Malawi 300 million US dollars. So we believe this is a step in the right direction in as far as industrialisation is concerned.

Board Chairperson for the project leaders, MMC Laboratories Limited, Brian Tempest, said the project would create jobs and be a source of foreign exchange.

"There will be over 100 hundred people here they will be from Malawi. We will bring in some expatriates as well to help in the training but in general it will be Malawian employees working here," he said.

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