RFA says cleared 6-lane road loan ahead of time

Resumption of remittance of road maintenance levy collections has helped Road Fund Administration to clear its K34.5 billion loan for the construction of the six-lane Saulos Chilima Highway in Lilongwe ahead of time, it has emerged.

In an interview after meeting Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Corporations and State Enterprises alongside other agencies at Parliament Building in Lilongwe yesterday, RFA chief executive officer Stewart Malata said the revival of Automatic Pricing Mechanism (APM) for fuel also enabled the authority to provide K110 billion to the Roads Authority (RA) for road maintenance and rehabilitation.

“The money has helped us to repay K34.5 billion borrowed from Standard Bank for the construction of the six-lane road and Kamuzu Central Hospital interchange in Lilongwe ahead of the 15-year repayment period,” he said.

Malata: Procurement of contractors underway. | Nation

Standard Bank plc and Old Mutual (Malawi) Limited partnered to finance the country’s first six-lane road. The funds financed the four-kilometre (km) road with a half clover leaf interchange and Mzimba Street, a 3.9km road.

Malata said levy inflows have also enabled RFA to secure K200 billion from FDH Bank and National Bank of Malawi for priority road rehabilitation works.

“Using fuel levy inflows as security, RFA has arranged financing facilities from FDH and National Bank to support rehabilitation of priority roads,” he said.

The two banks are funding rehabilitation of the 58km Golomoti-Monkey Bay/Mtakataka Turn-off section of the Masasa-Golomoti-Monkey Bay Road connecting to the shores of Lake Malawi in Mangochi.

Malata also said procurement of contractors for six new tollgates along busy sections of the country’s roads was underway.

The tollgates will be located along the Lilongwe-Salima road, around Mponela on the M1, around Nkhamenya on the M1, along the Lilongwe-Mchinji road near Namitete, along the Zomba-Blantyre road and along the Liwonde-Mangochi road.

He said four of the six tollgates will be constructed during the current financial year, with procurement of contractors almost complete.

Earlier during the meeting with the committee, Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) CEO Dad Chinthambi said it is yet to remit K202 billion in road levy collections to RFA.

He said Mera remitted about K236 billion in road levies to RFA between January and October 2026.

Chinthambi said the arrears, which accumulated to K247.8 billion by December 2025, fell to about K172 billion by September this year.

He attributed the accumulation of arrears to the depletion of the Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) which resulted from suppression of fuel pump prices between 2022 and 2025, a development that left Mera unable to fully compensate fuel importers for under-recoveries.

Of the K202 billion outstanding, the National Oil Company of Malawi (Nocma) accounts for K138 billion, Petroleum Importers Limited (PIL) K59 billion and Mount Meru Petroleum K3.5 billion.

Committee chairperson Sylvester Ayuba James said delayed remittance of road levies had contributed to the deterioration of the country’s road infrastructure due to inadequate funding.

Two weeks ago, the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) said K205.4 billion in fuel importer under-recoveries and K103.29 billion statutory levies arrears were cleared following restoration of APM.

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