While economist and associate professor Betchan Tcheleni from the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences says that the 2021/2022 national budget has tried to set foundation for rebuilding the economy, social commentator Caesar Kondowe says that the budget failed to meet Tonse Alliance's aspirations of "Building back a better nation".

Kondowe says that the Tonse government should avoid over-promising, instead it needs to channel more of its energy to fighting rampant corruption.

"Basically, the budget has not achieved its intended vision and development by looking at its items and agenda, for instance, almost more than half of the budget that was allocated to agriculture was meant for AIP, but you are looking at AIP, it has flopped this year because of a lot of circumstances," Kondowe said.

He adds that key sectors such as agriculture, health and education; have struggled to deliver quality social services such as drugs, affordable inputs and people faced increased levels of corruption.

On his part, Associate Professor Tcheleni says that much as the 1.9 trillion-kwacha previous budget was setting a foundation, government now needs to critically look into procurement issues and problems associated with the new Integrated Financial Management Systems (IFMIS) to avoid increased corruption and delay in projects implementation.

"One wouldn't say we have arrived where we wanted to be based on what Tonse Alliance presented in this budget. But, still with that you need to remember that we are building, journeying one would argue in that manner. We have not met many goals that were set," Tchereni said.

Tchereni added: "To the new finance minister, we are not expecting him to come up with new plans. We have enough of planning and policies, all we need is executing them."

Among others, the 2021/2022 national budget focused on entrenching macroeconomic stability characterized by low and stable inflation rate and economic growth that would ensure the country’s resilience to, and recovery from the devastating impact of Covid-19 pandemic; through programs with impact to achieve permanent food security, create jobs for the youth and create wealth for all.