The United States Ambassador to Malawi, Peter Blodde was speaking in Blantyre on Thursday when he toured the International College of Business and Management (ICBM) which is run by Bilal Trust, an Islamic Non-Governmental Organization (NGO).

Blodde noted that Malawi has the capacity to become the breadbasket in this part of Africa, therefore, there was need to invest much towards commercial farming, an area he said not much has been done.

“As part of our support to this country, we are exploring the possibility of supporting basic economic growth, particularly the agricultural sector. We would want to see that the country’s commercial farming has been boosted so that the country can emerge a bread basket in the region. Malawi has that capacity, but not much effort has been intensified in this area,” Blodde said.

The US Ambassador said despite the global economic meltdown, his government was still channeling a lot of financial assistance to Malawi towards various sectors like health, education and child survival, a development he said would continue.

“Much as the world, we are going through effects of the financial down turn, where aid to Africa from the West has decreased sharply, we have been able to support the country in various sectors, and we are very hopeful that this would remain so,” said Blodde.

Turning to the educational institution, Blodde said his government would support the college in meeting its pressing needs to ensure that needy children who cannot access professional education in some of the institutions due to their limited financial capacity would still get education through the institution.

“Our government is very pleased to note that you are providing education to needy students who cannot afford this level of education elsewhere. We are pledging to support you through materials and scholarships to benefit the students,” he said.

On his part, Chairman of the Board of Governors of ICBM, Altaf Gani said the Muslim community in the country was committed to meet the pressing needs of needy children through the provision of basic education at various levels.