James Woods

Advisor | Investor | Strat Comm | 🏆Recipient | 🎓 Oxford & LSE | Ex Malawi 🇲🇼 Diplomat to 🇧🇪🇫🇷🇮🇹🇳🇱🇱🇺🇲🇨🇦🇩🇪🇺| ⚽️Business

[James Woods @Jamesfwoods]

There is a beauty when people come together for the love of our continent and bring forward positive transformation #Africa #BOAAwards

[James Woods @Jamesfwoods]

@PempheroMphande Pemphero, on this remember the late Thandika Mkandawire’s view and believe he was right when he said, Africa does not lack development ideas. It lacks states willing to discipline the constituencies that capture rents.

[James Woods @Jamesfwoods]

@PempheroMphande None of this happens without confronting the political economy directly. Tenderpreneurship survives because it funds politics. Breaking it requires procurement reform with teeth, not aspiration.

[Bloomberg @business]

World governments step up efforts to calm energy markets, as the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz shows no sign of ending https://t.co/jH0CaEAqpH

[Onjezani Kenani @onjezani]

This is good news.

[Min.Foreign Affairs @ForeignMalawi]

Hon. George T. Chaponda, Minister of Foreign Affairs, met Mr. Tarik Ameziane MOUFADDAL, President and CEO of Morocco’s MASEN in Rabat. MASEN pledged a landmark 500MW renewable energy plant for Malawi by 2026, with experts arriving in December for feasibility work.

[Min.Foreign Affairs @ForeignMalawi]

Press Release.

[James Woods @Jamesfwoods]

@NationOnlineMw 🇲🇼is stuck in a cycle of weak production, a squeezed kwacha an econ too dependent on imported fuel, transport & basics. What we need now is honest FX reform, discipline in policy & real investment in energy, irrigation & value creation. That is how you break a 30% inflation trap.

[James Woods @Jamesfwoods]

@mrJay265 @NationOnlineMw I see the point but governance is not about recycling names; it is about whether the structure, mandate, and fiscal controls can deliver results this time. Malawi’s problem has never been personnel alone it is execution and accountability. That’s where APM will be judged.

[James Woods @Jamesfwoods]

@riaanlombard11 Well, well, well, simply seeing a functional capital flight as 🇲🇼 can’t move forex, instead trap value in instruments that appear liquid. MASI rising is 🤔, the kwacha is collapsing in slow motion and the market is pricing that reality in advance. Inflation fuelled bubble 👀.

[James Woods @Jamesfwoods]

Malawi’s bishops have sounded the alarm as violence is no longer fringe, it is becoming routine ahead of Sept 16 presidential election. With each machete swing & each lookaway by the police, we lose more than order as we lose the idea of a fair election. https://t.co/4yHychmOzP

[James Woods @Jamesfwoods]

@riaanlombard11 @riaanlombard11 what that single tin tells us or me to be precise is that:
1. The kwacha is overvalued, hiding a deeper FX crisis.
2. Inflation is being driven by weak policy, currency scarcity, and debt. (We know)
3. Malawians now pay a poverty premium, even for basic survival

[NationOnline @NationOnlineMw]

Police, MDF fail to protect demonstrators https://t.co/B2TMhaHhsg

[Jack McBrams @mcbrams]

This is how democracy dies: in broad daylight, under the watch of armed officers who do nothing. The violence in #Malawi was not random—it was enabled. @malawipolice, MDF: your silence is complicity. We demand justice. We demand accountability. We will not be silent.

[James Woods @Jamesfwoods]

@riaanlombard11 Spot on. Blocking sugar export 🤷🏽‍♂️. In a forex crisis, you protect inflows. Poor policy decision and rather self-inflicted asphyxiation. Basic economics, no dollars, no fuel, no medicine, no fertiliser. What exactly is the 🇲🇼 gov solving?

[James Woods @Jamesfwoods]

@RSkinnebachEU @EUinMalawi @IrlEmbMalawi @HumanRightsMW @OxfamMalawi @misamalawi @MWHRRC @NICEMalawi @Csat_Malawi @MVerwijk @NLinZimbabwe Valuable in theory. But Malawi’s issue is not lack of dialogue it is the political will to act. Corruption here is not a gap, it is a tolerated practice. Until accountability moves beyond theatre, these sessions remain performative. Speaking as a Malawian and a former diplomat.