This comes after parliamentarians adopted the State Of the Nation Address presented by President Mutharika on Thursday 5th June 2020.

Mwanamvekha says COVID 19 and the Anti-Jane Ansah demonstrations have cost the country a lot affecting various sectors such as the tourism and hospitality.

The Minister says progress across sectors is only possible when the country’s economy gets resilient from various external shocks.

"We will try as much as possible to mitigate the impact of COVID 19 to the economy and the affected sectors. To recover quickly from the economic shocks, there's need for our economy to get resellient from external shocks," said Mwanamvekha.

The Minister however says the 2020/2021 National Budget does not cover elections saying elections are already covered in the current budget.

Leader of Opposition in the House Lobin Lowe says the opposition is ready to deliberate and ensure the budget passes bearing in mind the status quo.

"We are ready to discuss and pass the budget. We are satisfied with how deliberations have gone so far, we have much going on," expressed Lowe.

The 2019/2020 fiscal year on a 1.8 trillion kwacha national budget ends on 30 June 2020, with expectations the 2020/2021 national budget will be more than this.