President Lazarus Chakwera has canceled this year’s 6 July Independence Day celebrations citing economic challenges that have rocked the country.

The announcement has been made by State House’ director of communications Sean Kampondeni who is addressing media for the quarterly media briefing.

According to Kampondeni, Chakwera has opted for a small prayer ceremony to take place at Bingu International Conference Center (BICC) in Lilongwe.

Initially, government through the Ministry of information announced that this year’s 6 July celebrations will take place at COMESA Hall in Blantyre.

But president Chakwera asked that the celebrations be moved from Blantyre to Lilongwe to cut costs.