Politics
Joel Chigona
Minister of Labour, Skills and Innovation; MP for Salima Central East
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- Minister of Labour, Skills and Innovation
- Member of Parliament for Salima Central East
- Constituency
- Salima Central East
- District
- Salima
- Region
- Central Region
- Party
- DPP Democratic Progressive Party
- In Parliament
- Elected 16 September 2025
- In office since
- October 2025
Contact
Contacts as published by the Parliament of Malawi.
2025 election result: Salima Central East
- Joel Chigona DPP4,935 29.7%
- Ihlaf James Khalid Independent4,717 28.3%
- Sakina Salimu Chingomanje MCP3,072 18.5%
- Kassim Mdala Amuli Independent1,301 7.8%
- Paul John Chitimbe Independent1,160 7%
Top 5 of 9 candidates.
Source: Malawi Electoral Commission
Joel Chigona is Malawi’s Minister of Labour, Skills and Innovation, appointed on 30 October 2025, and kept the post in the January 2026 reshuffle. The electoral commission’s 2025 results list him as Joe Salvatore Chigona.
As minister he has backed a national framework for recognising skills people learned on the job, known as Recognition of Prior Learning, and in 2026 praised the Tea Association of Malawi for paying tea workers’ wages digitally.
In his constituency he launched classroom blocks at Chigolo Primary School under a World Bank-funded climate resilience project, and said Constituency Development Fund money would go to building teachers’ houses.
Joel Chigona is the Member of Parliament for Salima Central East constituency in Salima district, in Malawi’s Central Region. He sits as a member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). In the 16 September 2025 general election Chigona won the seat with 4,935 votes (29.7% of valid votes), ahead of Ihlaf James Khalid (Independent) with 4,717. 9 candidates stood.
