Lilongwe City Assembly Hail JTI for Rehabilitating Road In Kanengo

Rehabilitateđ róad 

The Lilongwe City Assembly says is impressed with one of Malawi's tobacco buying company, JTI for rehabilitating a 200 metre road at Kanengo Industrial site.

JTI has single-handedly rehabilitated the road which pass by the company's warehouse to a tune of K52 million. The high quality concrete road is conducive for heavy trucks.

Mayor (center)

Deputy Mayor of Lilongwe City, Akwame Bandawe, said when commissioning the road “This attests to the fact that if we can join hands with the private sector, we can make our city a better place to live in” he said

He described this support from JTI as "so colossal" then appealed to other companies to borrow a leaf from JTI and partner with the City Assembly in improving the City’s infrastructure.

Akwame Bandawe 

“The needs of the city are many and yet the resource envelope is too narrow. We expect the private sector to come to our rescue and take part in developing this City. We will as a City Assembly continue to harness a cordial working relationship with the private sector as corporate citizens and of course all the city dwellers in ensuring that we provide utmost good amenities for the people.” he added

The Deputy Mayor however, admitted that the City is failing to carryout its functions and provide services because it lacks resources since a lot of individuals and institutions continue to shun from paying city rates. He disclosed at the event that the city assembly did not respond to JTI request for the City Council's support for the rehabilitation of the project due to financial constraints


“We have a lot of defaulters when it comes to city rates, so it’s a challenge for us to be giving out what we are supposed to be doing because we rely on the same money. So its a challenge now and that is why we are saying that we really need to hold hands when coming with these kinds of developments” said Akwame

Bruce Munthali 

Chief Executive Officer for Tobacco Control Commission (TCC), Bruce Munthali also hailed JTI for such a commendable undertaking.

"This undertaking by JTI is quite commendable because is in line with the government that Tobacco companies should partner with government to ensure that they have expanded corporate social responsibility programmes. So this road construction by JTI definitely goes along way to demonstrate that commitment to government and Malawians that tobacco companies should also undertake such activities.”

Fries Vanneste

Earlier, Fries Vanneste, JTI's Managing Director said the company rehabilitated the road as a way of assisting government development endeavors in ensuring utmost good infrastructure to spar socio-economic development as well to facilitate JTI business processes and enhance safety requirement.

Vanneste said the road was in a very poor state which negatively impacted on their business operations and other companies in Kanengo.

“Due to its sorry state, the road was slippery during the rainy season and therefore not conducive for heavy trucks that ply this road on daily basis.” he said

“As a responsible corporate citizen we felt we had a role to play in ensuring that this road is rehabilitated. We therefore took the initiative to contribute to the city’s infrastructure by repairing this road and create a meaningful and win-win scenario for both the city and our business success.”

He further assured that the company will continue support government development agenda on road infrastructure because as a tobacco buying company understands that it cannot comfortably transport tobacco if the road network is bad.