Tobacco Control Commission

The Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) was established by an Act of Parliament under the Tobacco Act (Chap 65:02) and Control of Auction Floors Act (Chap 65:03) in 1938 with a mandate to regulate production and mar-keting of tobacco in Malawi.

In order to efficiently execute its mandate, TCC initiated several reforms as part of the Malawi Public Sector Reforms Programme that was launched by His Excellency President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika in February 2015. TCC is undertaking the following reforms:

Grower Registration
The reform was initiated to promote tobacco traceability, product integrity and secured orders. As part of the reform, TCC enhanced its biometric grower registration and licensing system called Farmer Management System (FMS). Through the enhanced high tech system, farmers are registered and licensed in under five minutes. Through the reform, a total of forty seven thousand (47,000) Tobacco Farmers have been registered and licensed for the 2018/19 season.

Tobacco Production
This reform is being undertaken mainly through crop size management where the allocation of production quotas to tobacco growers is on the basis of trade requirements as provided for by the tobacco buying companies. The reform helps create stable tobacco prices and reduce budgetary pressures on the Commission. Additionally, the reform enables the Commission to enhance competition on the market and currently, TCC has successfully registered and licensed Watergen Africa Ltd from Ukraine, which joined towards the end of the 2018 marketing season through a third party. TCC also held discussions and lobbied with the Chinese Government to continue buying tobacco from Malawi.

Grower Returns
TCC initiated this reform in order to increase returns and investment opportunities of tobacco growers and ensure increased interest in the tobacco industry. Through the reform, the Commission developed tobacco charges per kilo gram per kilometer for various loading centres to the nearest selling floor and a monitoring and evaluation on this new system discovered high level of compliance.

The monitoring was aimed at assessing the impact of the intervention in realising the expected cutback on the cost of transporting tobacco by the tobacco farmer.

Financial Sustainability
This reform was initiated in order to free TCC from any loans and improve its operations. This saw TCC boarding off some of its properties in Limbe and Lilongwe offices. Furthermore, TCC constructed a State of the Art office block to house its headquarters delinked from Lilongwe Divisional Offices. The reform reduced the office space pressure which was experienced when both offices were housed in one office block.

Part of the capital investment for the construction of the new office block was sourced from commercial banks and in order to reduce the cost paid through interest, TCC undertook a deliberate reform to pay off the loan in 2018 thereby saving over seventy million kwacha (MK70, 000,000.00) in interest payment.

Environmental Management
TCC is undertaking this reform as one way of preserving the environment, ensuring the steady supply of curing and building material during tobacco processing and also to help preserve tobacco farms. The Commission targeted schools located in tobacco growing communities in selected districts namely, Chikandazgovu Junior Primary School in Mpherembe, Mzimba; Chimwamsongwe Primary school, Lilongwe; Suza Primary school in Kasungu; and Chanda Primary School in Dzaone EPA, Zomba.

The reform has seen TCC planting twelve thousand (12,000) trees; three thousand (3,000) in each of its divisional offices. The trees are monitored and an eighty five percent (85%) survival rate has been registered.

Regulatory Framework
In undertaking this reform, TCC through its line Ministry, reviewed current legislation by amalgamating chap 65:02 and chap 65:03 into one (Tobacco Bill) to accommodate emerging issues in the tobacco industry across the globe. The Tobacco Bill was presented and successfully passed by Parliament in December 2018. The new law empowers TCC to effectively regulate the tobacco industry while safeguarding tobacco growers’ interests.

TCC also reviewed, revised and disseminated some of its Policies which include the Medical, Corruption and Fleet Management Policies. The revision necessitated inclusion of aspects to enhance policy effectiveness. Looking at the reforms initiated and progress made, TCC is doing a commendable job in undertaking its reforms.

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