This is not to discourage those who are conteplating of coming back to Malawi but to equip them that they can be readily prepared.

When unemployment hits hard


by Taonga Sabola, 18 May 2006 - 08:06:49

During one of his company’s award giving ceremonies to long serving employees, an expatriate managing director once described a Malawian as a very hard working person on earth.
“You can identify a Malawian amongst several other nationalities by the way they commit themselves to their work,” said the boss before concluding his speech.
Indeed, Malawians have proved to be hard working every time they have gone to work in countries like South Africa, United Kingdom and America.
But a stroll in most parts of the country show a lot of people both young and old just loafing. Have Malawians changed their attitude towards work? Or, does charity not begin at home?
James Gondwe (not his real name) graduated from Chancellor College—a constituent college of the University of Malawi, some three years ago with a Bachelor of Science degree. During his graduation ceremony, his parents were very excited to see their son getting a degree as they thought that all their problems would be over immediately he got a job.
Today, three years down the road, he is still not employed. He is idle in his home district of Zomba. Since he left school he has never been given the chance to try his luck in the employment world.
All the money invested in him by government and his parents throughout his school life is just been wasted.
The excitement that was on the faces of his parents on that very special day inside the Great Hall in Zomba has now faded. They see their son, whom they once hailed as a hero, as useless.
Speaking beside a heap of second-hand clothes at Chinamwali market where he is engaged in a small-scale business, James blames his predicament and that of many of his qualified but unemployed peers on corruption. He believes the system is full of corrupt bosses.
“I have moved up and down in towns and cities looking for a job. I have applied for many jobs that have been advertised in the papers but nothing seems to be going my way.
“I have now decided to call it quits and start selling second-hand clothes as it appears there is no place for me in the industry,” he says.
Today walking in the townships of Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu around six o’clock in the morning, especially where there are football pitches, one is greeted by scenes of young and energetic boys aged between 20 and 30 years-old passing the morning away by playing soccer.
Most of these boys are university and college graduates who claim they have nothing to do as the system has created very few openings to absorb them.
These are very strong boys whose energies the country needs to utilise if it is to attain the dreams of achieving economic growth of at least six percent per annum.
Though there are no latest statistics on unemployment in the country due to lack of funds to conduct a Labour Force Survey (LFS), it does not take a genius to see that the trend is on the rise.
National Statistical Office Deputy Commissioner of Statistics Mercy Kanyuka recently said that financial constraints have made it difficult for the body to conduct the survey.
With more and more students coming out of college in various disciplines every year, coupled with more and more companies closing their doors, the picture looks gloomy.
One senior government labour expert pegged Malawi’s unemployment rate at three percent while another—who quit government some three years ago—puts it at 13 percent.
To add salt to injury, the recent Operation Dongosolo which removed vendors from the streets about three weeks ago has added its own figures to the unemployed world.
Hundreds to thousands of young men and women who had found refuge from the tough unemployed world through street vending and operating telephone bureaux have bounced back to the evil world as all their money spinners have been demolished by the authorities.
Just visit libraries which stock current newspapers and see how many youths patronise the places. Not because of their appetite to read but to see how many vacancies have been advertised in the papers so that they can try their luck.
Economists have argued that lack of unemployment figure has left the country in the dark as it cannot know which sector is creating jobs or not, making planning at national level tricky.
Zomba-based youth rights group, Youth Net Counselling (Yoneco) believes government has failed in securing enough jobs for its young people especially those coming out of school.
“With people spending over six years after leaving school before getting a job, there is no way one can say that things are okay,” says Yoneco Programme Manager Felix Limbani.
He says although government has opened initiatives for the unemployed to get loans and start businesses, the institutions are yet to start benefiting the youth.
The Malawi Congress of Trade Unions (MCTU) believes the problem of shortage of jobs in the country has been escalated because may jobs have been given to foreigners.
MCTU Secretary General Austin Kalimanjira says government needs to put in place measures to check the awarding of jobs to expatriates at the expense of the local Malawians.
President Bingu wa Mutharika recently spoke against the tendency of awarding jobs to expatriates which are normally paid more than equally qualified Malawians.
Economics Association of Malawi (Ecama) spokesperson Harold Ngalawa says the absence of figures makes the situation hard for people to debate about the subject.
“However, despite having no figures on the subject there are strong indications that we are doing badly in terms of job creation in the formal sector. Company closures, down-sizing and many other indicators point to the direction that we are not doing very well,” he says.
He argues that the solution to the problem lies in economic growth.
“There is no way we can force matters. For us to create more jobs for the people we must first of all achieve a good economic growth,” he adds.
Malawi registered a slump in economic growth last year due to a food crisis created by prolonged dry-spells during the growing season.
Government looks forward to a GDP growth of around seven percent with bumper harvest this year although the growth targets remain a bone of contention with other authorities suggesting a lower growth.
Ngalawa says Malawi should not anticipate more jobs to be created this year as the country is coming from a low base.
The Malawi Export Promotion Council (Mepc) believes the problem can be solved by exporting the excess talent that the country has.
“Through the exportation of talent and skills the country will be able to reduce the numbers of the unemployed as well as getting the much needed forex,” says Mepc’s Research and Projects Senior Manager Grandford Banda.
Whatever the argument, two points remain clear: Malawians have not changed their attitude towards work and that government needs to develop its capacity to create jobs which will mean more Malawians working and contributing to development.
The situation also poses a challenge to the country’s education system to design training programmes that can encourage entrepreneurship. The current education system is biased towards white-collar jobs.
When that is achieved, a growth rate of over six percent will be very easy to achieve.

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