Roza Madaro Mbilizi

Roza Madaro Mbilizi is Malawi’s Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development, named on 16 October 2025. She was one of six women in President Mutharika’s first Cabinet of 24.

Born on 6 October 1968, she took a social science degree at Chancellor College in 1989 and a master’s degree in economics at the University of Queensland in Australia. She worked as an economist in the Ministry of Finance in the 1990s, then spent twelve years from 2000 as head of policy, planning and research at the Malawi Revenue Authority.

In the 2025 campaign she went to court over the name on the ballot paper. She had applied as Roza Madalo Fatch, the name she legally went back to after her husband Francis Mbilizi died in 2020, but the electoral commission printed her married name and the court backed the commission. After the election, former MP Victoria Kingstone and two others were arrested over an alleged plot to kill her; Kingstone denied wrongdoing and was released on bail.

As minister she has backed tractor-loan schemes for farmers and welcomed the 2025 tobacco season, when buyers took about 221 million kg, more than expected.

Roza Madaro Mbilizi is the Member of Parliament for Mangochi Central constituency in Mangochi district, in Malawi’s Southern Region. She sits as a member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). In the 16 September 2025 general election Mbilizi won the seat with 11,802 votes (46.8% of valid votes), ahead of Victoria Kingstone (Independent) with 9,629. 5 candidates stood.