Accountants in the country have been challenged to be proactive in providing solutions to persisting challenges in the economy by ensuring production, partnerships and positivity, if the Malawi2063 development plan is to be achieved.
This came out during the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Malawi (Icam)’s annual conference over the weekend, held under the theme ‘Creating Value and Building a Sustainable Economy’.
National Planning Commission Director General, who was also the guest of honour at the event, Thomas Munthali, said there is a need to balance shares between the productive sectors and social sectors, a function better managed by the profession.
He emphasised the need for effective partnerships to maximise the contribution that Icam can make to the realisation of the Malawi 2063 aspirations such as constant and effective engagement with the government.
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“Attracting and retaining investments into the strategic sectors cannot be overemphasised. As members of the institute, look at the opportunities that exist for creating wealth and make strategic decisions towards harnessing the opportunities. Relatedly, never tire in advising others on the Public Finance Management (PFM), fiscal and investment-promoting policies. Where market failures exist, advise the government on how the State can effectively intervene to correct them through a developmental state philosophy that largely operates in alliance with the private sector.
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“Partnership works best with credible and reputable institutions. Icam should ensure that it builds and maintains a reputation of high ethical standards. This will attract and retain investors and enthuse confidence in the advice you give. Otherwise, a compromised institution or members have no moral obligation to point out ethical ills of others,” Munthali said.
Icam President Moffat Ngalande said aim was to orient members on the role of the accountant in achieving the Malawi2063 development plan.
He said an accountant is the custodian and adviser on resource allocation and performance of the organisation and therefore should be on the driving seat when it comes to economic growth.
“More vibrant companies mean economic growth. What we want them to take home is how they can contribute to economic growth because we have various economic challenges mostly because we are not producing enough and generating enough foreign exchange reserves and economic income that can sustain the needs and that is why our fiscal space is extremely narrow.
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“All the revenues we get, we allocate them to debt interest payments and not specifically to development agendas and social needs and, therefore, the Malawian accountant needs to drive the economy of the nation so that we can move forward,” Ngalande said.
Currently, the country faces three inter-linked economy challenges that are low fiscal space spending no less than 75 percent on statutory obligations, foreign exchange shortages hovering around one month of import cover and unsustainable debt seen at 69.9 percent of gross domestic product at end December 2022.
Malawi aspires to become an inclusively wealthy and self-reliant industrialised upper middle-income country by the year 2063 through agriculture productivity and commercialisation, industrialisation and urbanisation.
