Nabw pushes for better business opportnunities

The National Association for Business Women (Nabw) says it is stepping up efforts to improve women-led businesses’ access to public procurement opportunities, following findings that such enterprises account for just 0.44 percent of public sector contracts.

Nabw executive director Babra Banda said the organisation had spent the past year working with stakeholders to formalise women-led businesses, build entrepreneurs’ capacity to compete for government contracts and promote gender-responsive procurement.

Her comments follow a study by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) Federation of Women in Business Malawi Chapter, which identified inadequate business documentation and limited knowledge of bidding procedures as major barriers preventing women-led enterprises from qualifying for public contracts.

Banda: Nabw building women-led businesses

Banda described the findings as concerning, particularly because women lead many micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). She said the low participation also raised questions about the implementation of the 2020 MSME Order, which seeks to prioritise such businesses in public procurement.

“We have also built capacity, and we have district lead members. Our district lead members sit in district development meetings so that they can influence procurement at that level,” Banda said.

She added that Nabw was also addressing the challenge of business formalisation, which often prevents women entrepreneurs from qualifying for procurement opportunities.

“We have already trained another 28 people in Mzuzu. It shows how seriously we are looking at building capacity and making sure that informal businesses become formal,” she said.

Banda said improving women’s access to government contracts could have a significant economic impact, given the scale of public spending. She noted that a substantial share of the development budget, which exceeds K3.3 trillion in the 2026/27 national budget, goes towards public contracts.

In a separate interview, Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Affairs chief gender and development officer Chimwemwe Kuseni said the ministry had partnered with Nabw to promote gender-responsive procurement as a way of empowering women economically.

Kuseni , however , acknowledged that implementation and compliance remained major challenges.

“One challenge that has been discovered is the lack of proper enforcement of the MSME 2020 Order because we observe that the directive is not being followed,” she said.

She added that although the ministry coordinated activities to promote gender-responsive procurement, it was not the institution mandated to enforce the order.

The Comesa Federation of Women in Business Malawi Chapter chairperson Selina Mwenelupembe said the study had also found that many women-led businesses remained small and struggled to expand their operations and build the resources needed to compete for public contracts.

She said 36 percent of the women surveyed were unaware of the MSME Order intended to facilitate their participation in public procurement

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