Malawi today

Malawi could lose millions to stolen botanical patents
By Richard Chirombo
Malawi does not have a multi-purpose laboratory necessary to examine the chemical composition of most of its botanic resources, a development that has meant little knowledge about the wide variety of botanic life endemic to the country.
This renders the country vulnerable to theft of its would-be botanic patents as people posing as tourists would easily siphon indigenous knowledge from a friendly but unsuspecting people which may later be patented in their name leaving Malawi perpetually stuck in the woods of poverty.
Prof. James Seyani, General Manager for the National Herbarium and Botanic Gardens of Malawi, confirmed the development that the country did not have a state-of-the-art, all encompassing laboratory that would be used to examine all of the country’s botanic resources in a bid to deter business-minded visitors from profiteering from the country’s botanic resources.
Seyani, however, said plans were under way to establish one such laboratory, and hoped this would help deter theft-minded entrepreneurs from thieving some of the country’s endemic botanic resources.
“But, meanwhile, we would love to urge Malawians not to publicize indigenous knowledge because we need to protect it. Let us try all we can to prevent this knowledge from getting into the wrong hands- people who may protect our own botanic resources using patent laws,” said Seyani.
He said traditional knowledge was now becoming a billion Dollar phenomenon around the world and needed to be safeguarded. This is truer for Malawians who go to such countries as South Africa to sell herbal concoctions and other traditional medicine.
It would become easy for such people to pass out the knit-gritty details pertaining to the prowess of their medicine, in the process exposing Malawi to theft of its invaluable botanical resources.
Just such a thing happened in Chipata, Zambia two years ago. A European national was bewildered by a plant that acted as an anesthetic and was being used by local people when removing teeth using the traditional hand method.
Perplexed, he asked the local people how the local herb worked, and where it was found- knowledge he later took back home and has since patented the plant and its chemical components.
People, including Zambians, now find their own concoction- now out of their hands and control, anyway- in up market London shops.
The use of botanical resources stolen from African countries and later registered as protected patents has raised moral questions over the moral responsibility of pharmaceutical companies, who happen to be the major customers and beneficiaries to such fraudulent deals.
These companies cough millions of Euros to get the nod to use the stolen patents ,a trend that also leads into exorbitant drug prices as the pharmaceutical companies seek to off set some of the costs incurred in production of such products.
One such controversy has revolved around the issue of Anti-retroviral drugs, though the issue has nothing to do with patent theft. The World Health Organization has been battling with pharmaceutical companies over the crucial issue of pricing, as health experts seek to make them cheaper and affordable to governments around poor continents.
The companies have been reluctant, though some positive strides have been made towards the manufacturing of generic drugs, which could mean reduced costs for governments- resources that would be used in improving the socio-economic status of people.
Seyani hailed the United Nations member states for putting in place mechanisms that would help protect indigenous knowledge. He said a recent meeting held in New Delhi, India, had helped open the eyes of many African states about the invaluable cost of indigenous knowledge.
Among other efforts, the UN came up with the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Malawi is yet to carry out a comprehensive analysis of its botanical resources, a development that could mean delays in finding an economic catchword in some of our wild forests- a discovery that might as well unearth the twin brother to Tobacco now faced with a growing anti-smoking lobby and dwindling market prices.
Tobacco is the country’s top export earner, accounting for 60 per cent of the country’s foreign income.
Lotteries Board squeezes auditing firms out of competitions business
By Richard Chirombo
Malawi’s auditing firms have for the past five years witnessed a slump in income gained from monitoring private sector promotions and competitions.
Industry players have attributed the trend to the establishment of the National Lotteries Board (NLB) in 2003. NLB came into effect after enactment of the Lotteries Act, making it the de facto regulator of promotions and competitions in the country.
A review of financial reports for three top notch auditing firms has revealed that there was no budget (income) line for competitions and promotions monitoring. The development confirms fears the coming in of NLB had squeezed auditing firms out of one line of business that proved both lucrative and monopolistic as other non-auditing portfolio players could not join the bandwagon.
It was customary before 2003 for private sector players to hire the services of auditing firms, in the absence of a national regulator, who provided monitoring services. Their presence also boosted the credibility and transparency acclaim of promotion and competition runners.
The trend, however, had its fair share of problems, one being that the auditing firms could not monitor compliance rates since they lacked the constitutional mandate to enforce any prize recovery measures.
The firms also happened to be official auditors for the companies running the promotions and competitions, putting them in a ‘don’t-bite-the-finger that feeds you’ fix.
Our research has revealed that the firms charged an average K700, 000 for their monitoring services, realizing a combined gross income of over K700, 000 annually.
In 2002 alone, for instance, there were 27 promotions and competitions monitored by the firms, while over 60 unmonitored promotions, competitions and fundraising activities were held by charitable organizations and church organs who could not afford the exorbitant service fees charged by the firms.
But the firms have sauntered on, despite being squeezed out of one line of business they dominated in over the years. The impact of the development seems to be negligent, if not minimal, according to their recent financial performance.
NLB Executive Director, Francis Mbilizi, when contacted this week, acknowledged that auditing firms used to dominate that line of business in the absence of a constitutionally instituted national regulator.
Mbilizi said, however, that had changed over the years as NLB makes its presence felt.
“I think part of the reason could be because of our coming in. But the other one could be because of the relatively high fees auditing firms charge; it is often in the ups of K500, 000.
“In comparison, NLB only charges 5 per cent of a promotion or competition’s total estimated budget. This means our Permit fees are reasonable,” said Mbilizi.
Mbilizi also said NLB was the only body established under an Act of parliament to monitor promotions and competitions in the country and, as such, all players needed to seek permits from the board before running any competition.
“This means that we are the only ones now; so auditing firms can no longer do that line of business,” said Mbilizi.
At the moment, NLB charges 5 per cent for any promotion or competition, down from last year’s before-September-rate of 6 percent. This is applied across the board, unlike in the past when companies running competitions of less than K5 million paid K10, 000 every month for the duration of the competition, while those running campaigns in ups of K5 million paid 6 per cent of the total competition cost.
Large industry players complained that this was unfair, leading into the gazetting of amended laws applying a 5 per cent permit fee across the board. The new rules came into effect on September 19, 2008.
NLB is an arm of the Ministry of Finance.

Malawi does little to promote Economic Botany
By Richard Chirombo
As growing economies such as China and India strengthen their economic botany industries through increased research and improved packaging, Malawi could be sitting on a billion Dollar income spinner by putting in little efforts to explore the opportunities that abound in its wide range of botanical resources.
The country has, so far, failed to use its ‘Development-Diplomacy’ strategy to woo Chinese investors, among other diplomatic allies, into economic botany. Development Diplomacy involves the use of good relations with foreign countries to press for more development investments at home.
Investigations conducted this week have revealed that the country has done little to promote economic botany, as, since January 2003, less than four research interventions have been carried out to explore new opportunities that exist in the area.
The most notable research into the area, on that could help Malawi raise its economic profile, was carried out in August, 2008 by Enoch Mlangeni and Cecilia Maliwichi-Nyirenda.
It focused on Distribution, Use and Potential Commercial Value of Mondia white in Southern Malawi. Mondia white is locally known as Gondolosi, and caused a stir in Malawi’s parliament when former Neno South Member of Parliament, Joe Manduwa, suggested that the controversial root could help the country increase the range of its export products.
Manduwa, a graduate of Bunda College of Agriculture, said at the time potential foreign markets existed for the tube, citing South Africa and United Kingdom as some of the hot spots.
Mondia white is a scrambling climber in the Milkweed family (Asclepiadaceae) that grows up to 4 metres, and is used to enhance cerebral and peripheral blood circulation.
Other than that, there have been little efforts to research on many of the country’s botanic resources.
Industry sources said this week it was the responsibility of the National Herbarium and Botanic Gardens of Malawi’s responsibility to carry out economic botany research. The institution serves as a national authority on plants, and keeps records for scientific and economic purposes.
However, National Herbarium and Botanic Gardens of Malawi General Manager, Prof. James Seyani, said recently in an interview in Zomba his institution only acts as a service provider to institutions actively involved in research and other related services.
“We are just a service provider that very rarely do we carry out economic botany research. In addition, we do not want to duplicate roles with the Ministries of Agriculture and Natural Resources; we are not allowed to go into business,” said Seyani.
Seyani added, however, that there were research interventions currently being carried out in Zomba and Mangochi. He said Malawi was happy that, through such conventions as the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, countries like Malawi could benefit from new protection measures against unscrupulous patenting of local products.
Seyani had some reservations about increased economic utilization of botanic resources, saying since trade involved both the supply and demand side, it was more likely that the supply side would suffer through resources depletion in the long run.
He acknowledged that economic botany was a billion Dollar industry, warning Malawians against passing traditional knowledge to foreigners- who may end up patenting local products in their original countries, and make the country pay dearly for the services of such patented products.
“That is one of the reasons we don’t advertise botanic resources because that mean loss of traditional knowledge and, possibly, billions of Dollars. Let us safeguard our resources,” he said.
According to Seyani, Malawi needed to do more in the area of packaging to reach the level of Chinese and India’s economic botany. The botanic products from the two countries can be found in Chinese and Indian-owned shops in the country, and range from dental treatment herbs to remedies for stomach upsets.
For Malawi, botanical products are largely sold on the South African market by local herbalists albeit without packaging materials and brand names. Some people also export Strophathus (Kombe/Ulembe), though this can be done only with the permission of the National Research Council.
African potato from Balaka district, fruit juice from Baobab, oranges, lemons, guava; Mondia white, Tamarndus indica (Bwemba) are some of the botanic products that have found themselves changing hands on the domestic market, while the country’s export portfolio remains weak