Centre for Social Concern (CfSC) has expressed worry that despite the country being on independence for 58 years, but more than half of the country’s population is still living in abject poverty.

The centre’s programs officer, Benard Mphepo, made the remarks following a new Malawi Poverty Assessment Report by World Bank which has revealed that about 73% of Malawians are poor.

The report, which was released on Tuesday in Lilongwe, has further revealed that the situation is not different from a decade ago.

Mphepo said the country has many weaknesses but the core factor has been poor governance.

He said: “We are very concerned that the number of people living with poverty is increasing instead of decreasing and it’s sad that this is happening after 58 years of independence.

“The core factor which has led us into this mess is the poor governance as we have been having a poor visionary leadership to bail us out of this economic mess.”

Mphepo has further said the country’s leadership is giving no hope of addressing the challenge in due course.

He suggested that government should make sure that people are food secure as a short term measure because inadequate food also increases food inflation which is according to a report from the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) is currently at around 33 percent as compared to around 10 percent which was reported two years ago.

On long term measures, Mphepo advised government to invest in agriculture productivity, industrialization to reduce unemployment and increase minimum wage for workers.

According to the World Bank report, Malawi’s poverty rate is the second highest among the poorest countries in the Sab-saharan Africa.