Barely seven months after launching a $100 million soya extraction and vegetable oil refinery in Blantyre, Malawi’s important business metropolis, Tanzanian billionaire Stated Bakhresa is deepening his guess on the nation’s manufacturing sector with a brand new cleaning soap manufacturing facility.
The venture, underneath Bakhresa Malawi Restricted, displays Bakhresa’s broader effort to broaden his firms’ actions in Southern Africa. Stated Bakhresa, 77, is understood throughout East Africa for constructing companies that make on a regular basis merchandise and help native provide chains.
Bakhresa expands Malawi manufacturing base
Richard Tchereko, HR and compliance supervisor at Bakhresa Malawi, mentioned ultimate meeting of manufacturing gear on the cleaning soap works has been accomplished and trial runs are underway.
“This facility will create jobs and produce rest room cleaning soap in volumes that may meet Malawi’s home wants,” Tchereko mentioned. “Regardless of financial challenges in recent times, we’ve got steadily expanded right here. That reveals our confidence in Malawi as a spot to speculate and develop.”
Malawi depends closely on imported cleaning soap and detergents, leaving shoppers uncovered to larger costs and provide gaps. Tchereko mentioned the brand new manufacturing facility will supply key inputs domestically the place potential. The funding aligns with President Lazarus Chakwera’s push to draw non-public capital, help native suppliers, create jobs and strengthen industrial capability.
A gradual rise rooted in enterprise
Stated Bakhresa’s rise from a small flour mill operator in Tanzania to a enterprise chief with holdings throughout meals, logistics, marine transport, hospitality and media has been gradual. In 2015, Bakhresa’s fortune was estimated at about $600 million.
The Bakhresa Group’s presence in Malawi already features a $100 million soya plant, launched in July 2025, that may deal with 500 metric tons of soybeans a day, roughly 182,500 tons a yr, making it among the many greatest processing crops in Africa. To produce the plant, Malawi’s farmers might want to increase manufacturing to at the least 150,000 metric tons yearly, a degree that may require extra hectares underneath cultivation and higher entry to inputs.
Bakhresa expands regional manufacturing footprint
Past Malawi, the Bakhresa Group is increasing in its residence market. In Tanzania, the group is investing $500 million to expand a drinks factory in Mwandege. The venture, anticipated to complete in 2026, will increase each day manufacturing capability from 150,000 to 300,000 cartons.
That growth is scheduled to coincide with the corporate’s fiftieth anniversary, underscoring Bakhresa’s long-term dedication to manufacturing in East Africa.
