Germany has donated 58.3 million Euros (about MK 34 billion) to Malawi to assist in sectors of education, health and private sector development for the period up to 2015.

Making the donation in Lilongwe Thursday, the German leader of delegation Alois Schneider said “Malawians are not alone and this underlines our continued commitment to improve the living conditions of the people of Malawi even times when the continued challenges in Malawi’s financial and economic management do not allow us to channel our funding through Government systems.”

He further said Germany focuses on sectors which directly benefit the Malawian people and the funds should partly be used to boost the education sector by contributing to teacher education and providing teaching and learning materials.

The two Governments also signed a results based programme, from the same funding, aimed at improving access to reasonable quality basic health care with particular focus mostly on maternal and new-born health.

“We have also agreed to commence cooperation in the new focal area of private sector development in rural areas in order to create more income and employment opportunities for the rural poor in Malawi,” further disclosed Schneider.

He however stressed that the Germany government expects transparency, efficiency and credible use of the funds saying; “Further commitments for Malawi can only be secured if the German tax payer and the German parliamentarians can be sure that their money is used for the intended purpose.”

Receiving the donation, Malawi’s Secretary to the Treasury Ronald Mangani assured the Germans that the donation would be put to good use and would be used for the intended purpose.

He further described the concentration on maternal and new-born health as “timely considering how much we are still lagging behind in this area.”

Germany also supports Malawi in the strengthening of public economic and financial management and an additional funding of 7 million Euros (MK 4 billion) for the same purposes had already been made available in direct response to cashgate investigations.