Malawi’s Director General of the Cannabis Regulatory Authority says there’s keen interest from international investors in investing in Malawi cannabis, especially from South Africa and Russia. 

Speaking on the sidelines of the Malawi Investment Forum (MIF) summit at Emperor’s Park, Johannesburg, Gauteng on 25 May 2023, Ketulo Salipira said the CRA had been “bombarded with inquiries” and the purpose of the summit was to share information and provide a platform for cannabis investment in Malawi. 

Salipira had back to back meetings with a number of potential cannabis investors and said afterwards: “Malawi cannabis has a special place because of the climatic conditions that are favourable to the production of cannabis and the political stability apart from availability of human resource. We have serious investors and companies from Russia, South Africa among others who are ready to come and invest in Malawi.”

One of the potential investors is Vadim Fedder of Armita Energy Tech Pty Limited said he was able to get information that he has been unable to get in two months within ten minutes of being at the MIF.

“We are a group of companies in Russia looking for different opportunities especially in the cannabis industry and we have the capacity and technology to extract oils from cannabis with factories in Far East, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan among others. We will modernize the cannabis industry through mechanisation and work with small-scale farmers and cooperatives for a multimillion dollar investment,” he said.

Secretary for President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba said Malawi was widely known as an agro-economy but it had the potential to be so much more and cannabis exports held huge value.

“I would like to reiterate our commitment to our strategic and potential investment partners and implore you all to consider Malawi as your preferred investment destination,” she said.

In his remarks, Trade and Industry minister Simplex Chithyola Banda said Malawi wass glad that its cannabis had attracted so many potential and serious investors as this would change the narrative of the industry in Malawi.