The president Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika has fired the Secretary to the Treasury Newby Kumwembe and has appointed Ronald Mangani to take over the position.

Mangani has been an economics lecturer at the University of Malawi’s Chancellor College since 1994.

Mangani holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Cape Town, an MSc in Economics from the University of York and Bachelor of Social Science from Chancellor College.

Our FOM sources through, newly appointed Chief Secretary to the government George Mkondiwa said Mangani will work with Kumwembe for some time as part of a handover process.

“It is true that Mangani has been appointed to replace Kumwembe as Secretary to the treasury. He will work with Kumwembe for some time,” he said.

An Economic analyst, Thomas Munthali, described the appointment of Mangani as a ‘good catch’, saying he is a very seasoned economist and is well respected locally and internationally.

“Sometimes it is good to get somebody outside the system so that he could have an outside angle to the economic perspective. He can be a good change agent,” said Munthali.

In a related development Mutharika has also fired the Agriculture Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) Chief executive Jerry Jana and has since replaced him with Foster Mulumbe.

Mulumbe was the grain traders’ director of finance until 2013 when his contract expired and was released.