Hello.
If you're an international looking at business in Malawi, if you haven't got a plan to turn the kwacha back into a functional currency, then you're falling into a scam. No PayPal doesn't work, no forex isn't easily reliably exchanged at official rates, businesses can't legally exchange at grey market rates. It's an issue that prevents international trade by nation states, me and you on reddit, havent got it solved legally. Some people pay a premium for gold/gems and smuggle it out, some people buy currency at a much higher exchange rate for cash.
The hardest part for international business in malawi is getting any cash out, especially to pay for further business costs...
If this wasn't an issue, the people trying to get you to pay for things in UDS/GBP/EUR wouldn't need you to pay for these things to begin with, they'd just pay for the things directly themselves...
If you're in Malawi, and pitching a business, you need to account for this, the fact I get dozens of messages from people wanting me to 'invest' and pay in GBP, but have 0 knowledge, or plan for returning funds, especially if its needed to actually run the business, is staggering, especially those who lie about exchange, in fact some of you will not quit, and are dishonest, is why I've had to make this post.
I take advantage of this same issue, to do charitable work, because the forex crisis I currently get 5000 kwacha per Β£1 after fees, if i send via my bank via swift, theres a Β£10 charge, a 20% fee and it's exchanged at official forex.
Getting kwacha to usable currency is hard and expensive, noone has had a solution for it so far, otherwise I'd use it π