The Forestry Rights Administration Support Project

The first phase of a project with the Forestry Department of Malawi, which is part of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining, was completed at the end of June 2015. The Forestry Rights Administration Support Project (FRASP) aimed to strengthen administrative management of licensing and revenues. The project was funded by the Norwegian government through the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Lilongwe.

The RD Forestry Rights Administration Systems were deployed at the head office in Lilongwe, three Regional Offices and the largest Plantation Office (Viphya Plantation Office). At the head office, all Export Permits and Licenses are now processed through the system replacing the previous paper based system. 

At the Viphya Plantation Office, the largest revenue generating plantation office in Malawi, the Forestry epartment is now processing and issuing permits and Conveyance and Phytosanitory Certificates through the system. 

Data exchange between the various offices has also been enabled. As part of this data exchange a SMS solution was developed and implemented that allows Checkpoint- and Forest Guards to query validity of Conveyance- and Phytosanitory certificates in an effective and accountable manner. The Guards simply send a text message to the FRAS system having issued the certificate at hand, the system immediately sends an automated response with the validity information the Forest Guard will need. The system was expanded to three Regional offices during June 2015.

Property Tax Mobilization for Mzuzu City Council

Funded by the German Cooperation agency GIZ, the project supported Mzuzu City Council to raise and manage revenues from property taxation. The project ended at the end of June 2015.

The first stage of the project included zoning of the city and a complete property survey, collecting the required data for property taxation – see survey maps below. The survey discovered 39,000 residential properties and the tax base was thus expanded four times from the existing valuation roll. The survey also provided detailed spatial analysis of household water access, access to sanitary facilities and house building quality.

The second phase of the project focused on the institutionalisation of the processes following our step-by-step methodology of discovery, valuation, automated rate demand notices, appeals, collection and enforcement.

A central element of the REMOP program is to strengthen the social contract between the City Council and its citizens. Citizen engagement is viewed as critical to successful mobilization of local revenues from property rates.

The revenues from property taxation of Mzuzu City Council increased by 200% in 2015 compared to the previous financial year. To date, the project has assisted the Mzuzu City Council in billing nearly 40,000 properties.