Country: Malawi
Duration: 2205-2027
Themes: Strengthening the Business Enabling Environment, Expanding Access to Competitive Contestable Markets
Cross Cutting Themes: Digital, Climate
Anticipated Impact Areas: Quality Jobs, Private Investment
The Challenge
Malawi’s private sector is struggling to expand against a backdrop of economic headwinds and regulatory bottlenecks. GDP per capita has been falling for three years, inflation is close to 30 percent, and foreign exchange shortages weigh heavily on investor confidence. Firms face high entry barriers, fragmented licensing, and uneven enforcement.
SMEs, which account for nearly half of GDP, are hit hardest. Two-thirds remain informal and only one in five survive their first year. Burdensome procedures, limited access to finance, and outdated systems keep most firms small and vulnerable, particularly those led by women and youth. Yet Malawi holds considerable promise. Crops such as oilseeds, legumes, coffee, tea, and spices are exported largely in raw form. With targeted reforms and investment, these value chains could generate downstream processing, raise productivity, and create formal jobs. Light manufacturing—currently small but growing—offers similar opportunities if barriers to entry and firm expansion are reduced.
The Mission
A C-JET grant aims to improve Malawi’s business environment and support export value chain competitiveness by easing business entry and identifying opportunities for value addition. By funding value chain diagnostics, regulatory reviews, and targeted technical assistance, the grant will generate actionable reform roadmaps and strengthen institutional capacity in key agencies. These activities directly support the CJET agenda by reducing barriers to entry, enhancing regulatory predictability, and fostering private investment and job creation, while laying the foundation for industrial upgrading and greater integration into regional and global markets.
The grant will address binding private sector constraints through diagnostics, policy dialogue, and technical assistance under two CJET pillars of strengthening the business enabling environment and expanding access to competitive and contestable markets . Activities will also designed to inform the pipeline Malawi - Transforming High-potential Resilient Value Chains (M-THRiVE) lending operation, which will provide financing to ensure impact at scale.