Malawi in Brief

Malawi, with its capital city in Lilongwe, is a land-linked country located in Southern Africa bordering Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia. The official language is English, while there are several local languages of which Chichewa is the most commonly spoken. The country's currency is the Kwacha. It has a land area of 118,484 square kilometers, a third of which is covered by the country's famous fresh water, Lake Malawi also called the Calendar Lake or the Lake of Stars. Formerly colonized by Britain, Malawi attained its independence in 1964, and became a republic in 1966. Ever since then, the country’s democracy has evolved through various phases in its development. Malawi has a presidential system of government, where executive power is vested in the president and cabinet. The legislative arm of government responsible for enacting laws and oversight, is the National Assembly. The Malawi Judiciary, is the third arm of government responsible for interpreting the law. Malawi's economy is pre-dominantly agricultural, with tobacco, tea, sugar, coffee and macadamia as the main export crops. The agricultural sector accounts for over 80% of the country’s GDP.