Tobias told a media briefing in Lilongwe on Wednesday that currently there is no candidate whose ideologies conforms with his.

At the briefing, Tobias announced that he has launched a series of events that will culminate into the launch of his manifesto at a yet-to-be announced date.

Tobias, an economist by profession, said his manifesto is centered on restoring the economy, saying poor policies of past governments have left Malawians in abject poverty.

He said he will raise money for his campaign from proceeds of his 2021 book titled A Guide to Self-Employment: A Malawian Perspective.

He cited high inflation, huge public debts, souring unemployment and a narrow tax base as some of the issues negatively affecting the economy.

Tobias said the manifesto he will implement will be in line with the last five years of Malawi 2063 First 10-years Implementation Plan (MIP-1) and Sustainable Development Goals.

“Malawi 2063 goal is to attain lower middle income status by 2030 with a Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of US$1,064 (National Planning Commission, 2020). Population projection by the National Statistics Office shows that there will be 23.1 million people by 2030.

“This means that to attain the bare minimum status of a lower middle-income economy, GNI must be at a minimum of US$24.6 billion by 2030. Available data shows GNI at US$12 billion in 2021 (World Bank, online). To attain the MW2063 goal, the economy needed to be registering an annual growth rate of at least 7.5 per cent from 2021.

“Economic growth rate during the implementation of Malawi 2063 First-10 years Implementation Plan (MIP-1) has been stunted growing at 4.6 per cent in 2021, 0.9 per cent in 2022, 1.5 per cent in 2023 and a projected 3.2 per cent in 2024 (Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Annual Economic Report, 2024).

He said current and previous governments have not built resilience of the economy to exogenous and endogenous shocks; hence his government will prioritize addressing such issues by among others implementing a free-floating exchange rate.