Africa-Press – Malawi. This week International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed with President Lazarus Chakwera’s Tonse Alliance government for a US$88.3 million Rapid Credit Facility (RCF), ahead of Board’s approval: Good news for Malawi? Yes and No!
It’s good news because we badly need the forex. It’s bad news because this, the RCF, confirms we, currently, can’t afford the Extended Credit Facility (ECF). That’s a bad image to the foreign creditors. It’s like taking your child to hospital with expectation that she’ll be treated as an out-patient, only to be admitted in the ICU.
What is the Rapid Credit Facility?
This facility provides emergency forex support to poor countries in the event that they are too weak to afford the Extended Credit Facility. This actually confirms what government disputed about Malawi being ‘too broke’ for an ECF program.
Worse still, the IMF had to use a more suitable window for our frailty – the Food Shock Window – which is only open until September 2023 for countries experiencing acute food insecurity and high food import bills mainly owing to the Russia – Ukraine war and COVID-19.
Malawi is actually the first country to need/receive this support. Good news? I can’t say it is. Moving forward. Now that the IMF says we cannot afford the ECF, we have applied for the Program Monitoring with Board Involvement (PMB).
This is like telling wakatapila that “chabwino ngati mukundikaikira tipita limodzi ku nsika kuti mutsimikize ngongoleyi ndiyogulira chakudya.” Isn’t that embarrassing? It’s sad we can actually run down this country this worse. So, the noisy about RCF is unnecessary!
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