‘Sleeping At Petrol Stations’: The Fuel Crisis Gripping Landlocked Malawi

In mid-October, across Malawi, petrol attendants saw unprecedented long queues, stretching miles on end. 

“Several reports noted that motorists were sleeping at petrol stations, while some taxi and motorcycle operators had been unable to work for weeks,” says Brendon Verster, Senior Economist at Oxford Economics Africa, to FORBES AFRICA.  

The stalemate continues with a lack of supply. “From what we’ve seen, the situation hasn’t really changed,” Verster mentions, but says relief could be on its way, following the Transporters Association of Malawi’s announcement earlier this week that around 287 fuel tankers are expected to arrive.  

This isn’t Malawi’s first fuel crisis and, unless its fiscal health changes drastically, it probably won’t be their last, Verster suggests.   

“Malawi earns too little foreign exchange (FX) relative to its import needs… The Middle East shock has only exacerbated Malawi’s monetary constraints, as higher oil and refined petroleum prices require even more FX,” he adds. 

Rising fuel prices squeezed budgets already strained by this year’s underperforming tobacco yields, a crop responsible for roughly 15% of GDP, according to The Tobacco Commission. It revealed the nation’s tobacco earnings to have fallen from $500.4 million in the first 19 weeks of 2025 to $282.5 million over the same period in 2026 as the average price per kilogram dropped from $2.54 to $1.98.   

“Malawi is in the grips of a long-term economic crisis. Declining agricultural output and exports, especially in its main cash crop of tobacco, have led to FX shortages and thus difficulties in purchasing fuel,” Chris Vandome, Senior Research Fellow at Chatham House’s Africa Program, tells FORBES AFRICA. 

Vandome adds that “the government has few options left for managing the crisis. Hence a sell-off in gold, showing the government is in a panic mode of damage limitation.”  

If Malawi, one of Africa’s least electrified nations, wishes to avoid another fuel shortage, trade diversification seems necessary.  

“It’s difficult to see how Malawi would easily get out of its current situation,” Verster admits, before suggesting possible safeguarding measures, such as ring-fencing FX for fuel imports, replenishing strategic reserves and “a potential International Monetary Fund program to unlock external financing and improve FX availability”.  

Some elements, however, are perhaps outside of the nation’s control. Malawi’s lack of ocean access leaves it dependent on neighbors for stock—a major gateway being Tanzania—and thus, vulnerable to many elements outside of its control. 

A recent Oxford Economics Africa report on Africa’s oil refinery capacity, led by Verster and titled Africa: A refining boom on borrowed time, discovered that 57% of the continent’s refined petroleum came from the Middle East in 2025, with the East African Community (EAC) reliant on the Gulf for 70% of its imports.  

While Malawi could soon enjoy some fuel relief, economic experts concur that expanding FX flows and reserves could possibly guarantee long-term insulation from such crises.