President Lazarus Chakwera has stressed on the need for African nations to put their house in order and utilise the available natural resources towards boosting trade.

The Malawi Leader said this at Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe on arrival from the Democratic Republic of Congo where he was attending the 42nd Ordinary Summit of the Southern African Community Development (SADC).

“We should be asking that what is Malawi will do because each country needs to really put their house in order so that as a region then we say these are the measures we want to take,” Chakwera said.

According to Chakwera, the region needs to institute favourable legislation that can ensure coordination among SADC countries on trade.

He said: “We need to put proper policies and legislation in place, making sure that we do fair trade, extractive industry is one that can help all of us.”

During the Summit, the Malawi Leader handed over the SADC Chairmanship to his Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) counterpart Félix Tshisekedi.

The 42 SADC Summit, started yesterday Wednesday, has ended on Thursday this week.