2006 DVL Awards
Top Budding
Entrepreneur
(Male) was
awarded to Gospel
Kazako. Highly regarded 
radio personality, Gospel left
the security of Malawi Broadcast
Corporation to start an advertising
agency. He has branched out further to set up a
radio station truly aimed at the whole of Malawi.
Where most independent radio stations targeted
the urban areas, Gospel’s Zodiak Broadcasting
aims to educate, inform and entertain those who need it most.
He continues to revolutionize radio broadcasting
through constant introduction of creative and
innovative programmes. Under his guidance,
Zodiak brought back live soccer radio broadcasts,
both local and international. With a carefully
selected radio dream team comprising of the
legendary Lucius Chikuni, Maria Chidzanja
Nkhoma and Franklin Titani, Zodiak has
challenged all norms in the industry. Having been
the fi rst and only radio station to apply for live
parliamentary broadcasts, it has also beaten the
pack by being the fi rst to announce names of
people whose passports are ready for collection
at the passport offi ce in Blantyre. This saves those
from far away a wasted trip to check the status of their passport applications.
Gospel founded the station after receiving
some training in the United States. Prior to that,
he had worked for the national broadcaster
Malawi Broadcasting Corporation. Many would
be surprised to know that he is also an ardent
farmer. He has persevered, is innovative and is a
visionary creatively ahead of his times.
Top Budding
Entrepreneur
(Female) was
awarded to
Grace Mhango.
An entrepreneur
extraordinaire, Grace Mhango started a knitting
and tailoring business in the 1990s, then
progressed to buying and selling second hand
cars, a few years later to being a sugar distributor.
Since the new millennium, she has ventured into
agro-trading, supplying maize, beans and fertilizer
to government, NGOs, donors and the general
public.
To support professional standards, she
joined and has been elected president of the
Grain Traders and Processors Association. Her
registered businesses include GW Investments,
Lilongwe Executive Lodge, and Trans-Afrique Bus
Services. A businesswoman who believes that
“giving is the best way of receiving”, Grace co-
sponsors St Michaels Sunday School Choir, and
completely sponsors both the Chiukepo Women’s
League and the Chiukepo Men’s Football team (for
a total of K1 million). She has also adopted 6
children (2 sets of triplets) from Mchinji.
Malawi’s Top Government Department was
selected after a panel of judges rated perceived
service delivery. Among the fi nalists were Ministry
of Local Government and Ministry of Tourism. The
2006 award goes to Ministry of Finance.
The Top School was chosen after a careful
look at objective criteria including university
entrance rate for recent graduates, MSCE pass
rate, annual tuition, number of laboratories, and
teacher/student ratios. New entrants in the Top
School index included Robert Blake, Nkhamenya
Girls, Ekwendeni Girls, Viphya Private and Chichiri
Secondary Schools.
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The winner emerged as Phwezi Boys Secondary
School. The deputy headmaster of Phwezi Boys
said the discipline instilled in the students at the
school and also the Rumphi location of the school
enables students to do well. The school had a
higher MSCE pass rate and sent more students
to college despite relatively poor conditions like
broken or missing windows in the classrooms and
dormitories. An alumnus, now BP Malawi Smartcard
Sales Manager David Nkhwazi, accepted the
award on behalf of Phwezi Boys Secondary School.
Malawi’s Top Bank is determined by Incmedia’s
assessment of percentage of women on total staff,
revenue/profi t generated per employee, customer
service orientation, corporate social investment,
image, and customer satisfaction index. All banks
were eligible for consideration for this award. For
2006, we only looked at customer service
which we believed would have equalised all banks.
Top Bank - Customer Service Award
Incmedia’s research team conducted a survey
amongst Malawi’s commercial banks to fi nd out
which bank has the highest customer satisfaction
index (csi). Questions asked ranged from the
image of the bank, friendliness of their staff,
customer product knowledge and customer
knowledge of the banks’ top management. We
also enquired whether banks had ever called
their personal banking customers to fi nd out if they
were satisfi ed with the bank’s service. Of all the
respondents, not a single one had ever received
a call from their bank except for a return-to drawer
cheque.
The trend refl ected that most banks that did well
in the previous year, mainly the larger banks,
registered a drop in their customer satisfaction
index whilst most of the smaller banks with a
smaller customer base had improved csi rankings.
It also showed that those banks were able to
interact more with their fewer customers.
Of all the banks in Malawi, the champion for
2006 was Malawi Savings Bank, a bank
that was not even in the top three the previous
year. This shows, that the market environment is
constantly changing and businesses would do well
not to take things for granted. Indebank was one
of the top three nominees.
Most Admired Institution represents the
institution which most college/university students
would love to work for. We asked students on
the University of Malawi, MCA, NRC, Mzuzu
University and Shareworld campuses which
institution they admired the most and why.
In this category, students on the Unima campuses
(The Polytechnic, Chancellor College, Kamuzu
College of Nursing, College of Medicine, Mzuzu
University, and Bunda College of Agriculture) plus
Shareworld Open University were asked which
institution they admired the most and why.
Of over 73 institutions nominated, National Bank
and Malawi Revenue Authority came fourth, World
Bank and Illovo third, Reserve Bank was placed
second and the title holder, the fairest of them all,
World Vision came first.
The reasons given favouring World Vision included
that they do charitable works, help orphans, offer
good salaries, and have good working conditions
and benefi ts. The students also were in awe of the
exposure one gets working for World Vision.
Incmedia congratules all Diversity Leaders.
Top Community Builder is a person or
organisation that helps a community through
innovation, creativity, integrity, a proven record
of achievement and involvement, leadership,
perseverance and endurance. The judges
looked for motivational excellence, courage
and commitment, as well as contribution to
development.
The 2006 Community Builder was awarded to
Napoleon Dzombe. Recently a documentary of
Napoleon’s life and his contribution was flighted on
DSTV. It featured well known South African actors..jpg)
Mr. Dzombe received the Lifeline Achiever Award
from the US based Force for Good Foundation in
2005 and another award in Japan. In fact, he has
an award named after him in the US.
Despite all these achievements and international
recognition, little of him is known here in Malawi.
A small sampling of his contributions:
- employing 400 people at his Madalitso Vitameal plant
- establishing Mtendere Orphanage in Lumbadzi
- building Blessings Hospital which provides medical, optical and
dental services at a minimal fee. At the hospital he has built
living quarters for visiting medical personnel and missionaries.
Blessings Hospital donates drugs and pharmaceutical equipment to
more than 56 health institutions throughout the country including
Kamuzu Central Hospital.
- dispatching K1 million worth of foodstuffs to Nsanje when he
heard that 29 people had died of hunger.
- to prevent a recurrence, teaching 33,000 farmers on the best
practice agricultural methods so they grow enough food.
- saving more than 20,000 lives
during the 2001-2002 drought.
All this from a man not even 50 years old, and
who never seeks recognition. Napoleon Dzombe,
we salute you!
Lifetime Achiever: -This award looks at
individuals who have excelled in almost every
aspect and are well rounded role models. They set
themselves apart through their social and economic
contributions, although they themselves are never in
the limelight.
Matthews Khondowe started his journey in
the business world with a simple purchase of a
cow, selling it at a profi t and continuing in that
business as there was good demand for cows.
The magnifi cent, towering Kang’ombe building
in Lilongwe’s city centre was an investment
undertaken after a car accident in which he almost
lost his life. The late Dr Banda arranged for him to
be airlifted to South Africa for medical attention.
On his return and recovery, he evaluated what
he had achieved with his life. He decided to
build Kang’ombe House as a lasting monument
to what a person can achieve, and to secure his
family’s welfare. He also owns Kalikuti Hotel and
built what is probably the largest church in the
CCAP Nkhoma Synod as a contribution to his
congregation.
Having retired, his children now manage the
businesses. Khondowe is now a preacher, serving
God unrelentingly.
Umunthu Award - This is awarded to an
individual for acts of heroism, selfl essness, courage
and humanitarian efforts in time of need. The story
of people doing something extra-ordinary to those
in dire need and out of simple generosity.
Noel Chalamanda, a young successful lawyer at
Knight & Knight received 2006 Umunthu award.
According to Dr. Jessie Mlotha, the chief surgeon
at Kamuzu Central Hospital, Chalamanda on
two separate occasions brought a lilongwe stab-
wounds victim who had been ignored by both the
police and the public and later 3 road accident
victims as he was coming from Kasungu and kept
following up later on their progress. Some of the
victims never made it. Responding to the award,
he said he felt humbled and honoured to receive
the award. Holding back the tears, Noel said the
fear of loss of a life compelled him to react and
respond in the way he did.
As much as we value individual achievement
and contributions, we also recognize the role
of institutions. DVL presented awards for Top
Business, Most Admired Institution, Top Government
Department, and Top Bank
The Top Business Award goes to a profi t-oriented
business who the judges rated most highly for
growth, job creation, creativity, innovation,
corporate social investment, image, and PR
orientation.
Included as nominees were Dairibord,
BP Malawi, Tambala Food Products and Nico
Holdings. Nico received the prestigious award.
Nico Holdings Ltd is a true diversity leader,
showing growth, innovation, contribution towards
Malawi’s economic growth, and to job creation.
Nico Holdings is a role model of other businesses
in Malawi. Formerly a government owned
enterprise, a management buyout team took over
during its privatisation nearly 10 years ago. Nico
was the fi rst company to list on the Malawi Stock
Exchange.
With a more than quadrupled gross income of
MK5,331 million in 2005, representing a 25%
growth and in the midst of a generally weak
economy, Nico has remained the country’s largest
property developer with majority shareholding in
Ryalls Hotel, Chichiri Shopping Centre in Blantyre
and the Nico Centre in Lilongwe. The major
activities of the Group are general insurance, life
assurance and pension administration, banking and
information technology.
Malawi’s only multi-national with interests as far as
Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia has at the helm Felix
L Mlusu, its Managing Director and Chief Executive.
Nico has majority shareholding (74%) in NBS Bank,
probably the fastest growing bank on the land. NBS
has ATMs in all its branches across the country. Nico
Holdings also has a 100% shareholding in Nico Life
Insurance Limited, Nico Technologies, Nico General
Insurance Limited, Niko Insurance Tanzania, Nico
Insurance Zambia and Nico Insurance Uganda.
Its mission, to create value for its stake holders, is
warmly embraced by its approximately 581 staff.
