According to the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM), the country’s Mining and quarrying industry is estimated to grow by 3% this year, from 4% estimated earlier. The change is mainly attributed to the coronavirus pandemic.

The virus arrives at a time when the government looked to minerals as the country’s main revenue maker, tobacco, saw a decline in sales and demand, followed by global anti-smoking laws. Last year, the (former) Minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining Bintony Kutsaira said mining is still the Malawi Government’s priority sector to transform the country’s economy. “Over the years, tobacco is facing global challenges due to the anti-smoking lobby instituted by the World Health Organisation [WHO]. This means as a country, we cannot continue to rely on the crop as a foreign exchange earner,” said Kutsaira.

The central bank, in its statement, outlined that the mining sector’s growth will suffer because the construction industry, amidst the pandemic, may slow down to 3.7% in 2020 compared to an estimate of 5.8% last year.