Assoc. Prof. Betchani Tchereni

Betchani Tchereni is Associate Professor of Applied Economics at the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (MUBAS) having served as the Secretary for Mining in the Ministry of Mining. Between January 2024 and August 2025 (1.5 Years), Betchani served as the Secretary to the Treasury in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Republic of Malawi after serving as Executive Dean of the School of Business and Economic Sciences at the Malawi School of Business and Applied Sciences (MUBAS). He is an accomplished Economist and leader with 20 years’ work experience as an Associate Professor of Economics and 15 of them in senior management of various institutions. Associate Professor Tchereni served as the Acting Deputy Vice Chancellor between July 2021 and May 2022 after serving as Acting Vice Principal between October 2020 and June 2021. He is also the former Dean of the Faculty of Commerce at the then Polytechnic of the University of Malawi (before delinking of the University of Malawi colleges). He was the Director of Research and Associate Professor of Economics at the North-West University in South Africa after being the Senior Economist (Senior researcher: Political Economy) at Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflections (MISTRA) also in South Africa for three years. He started off as a Business Promotion and Trade Officer within the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Malawi. Dr Tchereni gained a lot of exposure while in South Africa for close to 8 years where he also served as the Senior Facilitator in Economics, Research methods and Management at the Regenesys Business School in Sandton, South Africa and Milpark Business School. Betchani has also served as President of the Economics Association of Malawi after being the Vice President for two years before being appointed Secretary to the Treasury.
In corporate governance, Betchani has served in various boards of parastatals as chairperson, ex-officio and appointed member. The following organisations have been served successfully: Sunbird Limited, Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) first as appointed and then as ex-officio, Reserve Bank of Malawi, Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority, Malawi Airlines, The Roads Fund Administration, Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority, Lilongwe Waterboard, Malawi Oil Company, MBDNL, EGENCO. PPDA, Malawi Housing Corporation, MTL, all the six public Universities, MITC, all the Waterboards in Malawi, NEEF, MBC, CFTC, NFRA, Salima Sugar, among many. He was also a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Reserve Bank of Malawi.
By virtue of his position as the Secretary to the Treasury, DR Tchereni was Alternate Governor to the Board of Governors of the following International Institutions and Organisations: The World Bank, The International Monetary Fund, The African Development Bank, and ATIDI.
Betchani has lectured in Finance, Economics, Econometrics and Management both in Malawi and abroad especially in South Africa at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He served as the External Faculty Board member at the Milpark Business School in Johannesburg. He has been an External Examiner for PhD, Masters and Honours programmes for University of South Africa, Stellenbosch University, University of Kwazulu-Natal, North-West University, University of Rwanda, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan university, Malawi University of Science and Technology and University of Cape Town. His research interests are in Economics of Renewable Energy, Corporate Governance, Energy Policy, Energy Finance, Economic Policy, Macroeconomics, Industrialisation, Productivity, Trade, public sector governance and environmental and health economics.
Betchani served as a member of the University of Malawi Senate, a Senate Representative on the University of Malawi’s Budget and Finance Committee and sits on the Customer Consumer Forum of the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA). He is a public and motivational speaker, a Minister of the Word of God, a community leader and author.
Betchani holds a PhD in Economics from the North-West University in South Africa, a Master of Arts (Economics) from the University of Malawi, an Advanced Certificate in Econometrics from the University of Pretoria, and a Bachelor of Social Science from the University of Malawi.
Betchani has excellent research links with the North-West University in South Africa, University of Kwazulu-Natal, University of South Africa and the University of Zimbabwe. Dr Tchereni is highly skilled and conversant with Stata, Eviews and SPSS for statistical data analyses of cross-section (survey), time series and panel (longitudinal) data. He is learning the mechanics of GAMS to strengthen the skills in impact assessments.