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Over the past few years, especially in the post-Covid 19 period, Malawians have faced the ever-increasing cost of living. This is a result of the faltering and tumbling of the Malawi Kwacha against major currencies such as the US Dollar, the British Pound and the Euro on the international market. Unfortunately, all hope seems far-fetched because the country has largely failed to strengthen the Kwacha by coming up with foreign earnings in the face of the continued failure of tobacco sales to bring back the old and lost glory. If this year’s tobacco prices are anything to go by, then Malawi is in an economic crisis! During the 2024 crop growing season, while prices of farm input, for example, fertilizer went up (from MK60,000 to MK110,000 between August 2024 and January 2025), the prices of tobacco plummeted from MK500,000 down to MK240,000 for a tobacco bale averaging 100 kilograms. Consequently, unlike in the previous years, tobacco sales virtually failed to turn around the strength of the Kwacha. To everybody’s dismay, Malawians were shocked to see prices of basic commodities such as sugar, bread and cooking oil going up at the peak of tobacco sales, a clear vindication that tobacco ought to have been replaced as the main foreign exchange earner a decade ago. Malawian farmers desperately continue with tobacco farming merely for lack of a better and more viable alternative.

For the past two years or so Malawians have continued to face hard economic times. While Covid 19 brought most of the world economies to a grinding halt following diminishing industrial production, among others, most of these economies were resuscitated following the end of the Covid 19 pandemic. However, the case of Malawi is a bit unique and the country may not be alone in this scenario. The Malawian post-Covid 19 was wrought with such challenges as persistent fuel shortages; scarcity of basic commodities such as cooking oil and sugar; and the ever-increasing prices of farm input, especially fertilizer. By October 2025, day-to-day life in Malawi was associated with queuing for basic commodities: cooking gas, fuel (both petrol and diesel), sugar, and cooking oil. The bad side in all this is the hard fact this is associated with the general increase in prices for these scarce commodities. For instance, in a normal market scenario, sugar was selling at MK1, 800, during this crisis sugar prices jumped up to K5, 000, an increase by more than 100 per cent. However, it is worth noting that people are compelled to buy this sugar because there is no supply of sugar in main outlets.

As for fuel, the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA) recently recommended an increase in the prices of fuel (from MK2, 530 to MK3, 499/ litre for Petrol and from MK2734 to MK3500/ litre for Diesel) and because of the scarcity in question, people are compelled to buy at black market rates of MK8, 000/ litre or more instead of buying at these official rates. The new prices and, at worse, these black market rates, have pushed up transport fare prices including prices of various commodities on the market. The situation is even worse in outlying districts since dealers claim to be incurring huge costs on transporting these commodities from the centre (Lilongwe and Blantyre) outwards.  

The tough economic situation in the country has driven the impetus for people to move in the quest of looking for better opportunities in the destination areas. There is a tendency for people to migrate from the countryside to urban areas. This is following their conviction that the latter could offer them better income-earning opportunities. They go to urban areas, towns and cities with the hope that they will either find jobs or they will be able to start small-scale businesses. For some, such internal migration bears fruit such that within a period of, say, six months they are able to ’settle down’. However, for the majority life in towns presents more challenges than those obtaining in their home areas in the countryside. The following scenario attests to this:

For some of us, we actually regret leaving rural areas: town life is but hectic. Imagine I dreamt I would make it here with the Kabaza business (a bicycle taxi), but alas, the opposite is true. On a normal business day, I first of all have to ’secure’ money to pay for the bicycle rent, thereafter I have to think of putting some money aside for monthly house rent. As if that is not enough, I have to think of my daily survival: money to buy foodstuffs, for example, maize flour and relish. The situation becomes even tougher when you have a family in the village because you need to support the family members by sending them money with which to survive.

The above account narrated by one Kabaza taxi cyclist in Mzuzu City, northern Malawi, shows how tough life is in town for the rural-urban migrants. They are caught between a rock and a hard place: tough life in the rural areas versus unbearable and mind-boggling life in the towns and cities as narrated above.

The above scenario is also repeated at the international scene: Malawians, especially in the labour migration areas across the country, have the conviction that emigrating to outside countries is the only sure way of solving their familial problems. They, therefore, immigrate to such countries in the region as Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia and South Africa. Of these countries, it is South Africa which is a preferred destination in view of the better income-earning opportunities on offer. They emigrate not only to look for wage opportunities, but also to conduct cross-border trade between Malawi and the respective destination country. On the business front, there is viable trade in Malawian foodstuffs which are sold to Malawian migrants based and working in South Africa.

However, in practice, like the internal migrants, these international migrants and cross border traders face untold challenges not only while in South Africa, but also as they are traveling between the two countries. In South Africa, most migrant workers face the problem of expired documents, for instance, expired visas after their 30-day stay. They are, thereafter, liable for arrests and deportations. Once arrested, they are sent to Lindela Repatriation Camp awaiting deportation. In addition, in South Africa immigrants face the problem of unemployment, a thing which is not characteristic of South Africa, a country that for many years has been associated with ’milk and honey’. This is the information which intending migrants do not have when they are leaving their homes for the destination countries. Consequently, they end up being trapped in this web of challenges.

It is against this background that Migration and Society (MASO), a local Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) based in Mzuzu, northern Malawi, and works with vulnerable communities in northern Malawi with a view to helping them to uplift their socio-economic status. In addition to migration challenges, MASO also focuses on youth 2 empowerment, education challenges, and economic empowerment, focusing on women, most of whom shoulder the burden of household responsibilities. For the labour migration areas, it is these women who take charge of their households including the upbringing of their children in the absence of their husbands who are away working in South Africa. In this connection, Migration and Society is looking for partnerships with stakeholders with similar interests to join forces in this noble cause.