Browsing: Mozambique

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Mozambique is a country blessed with vast natural resources and abundant fertile lands – some of the key elements to ignite economic growth and social development that promises to change the good faith of the country.

Nevertheless, and despite the massive approved foreign investment related to natural gas rivalling its GDP, Mozambique will face strong challenges in order to secure a better future.

FurtherAfrica spoke to H.E. Adriano Maleiane, Mozambique’s Minister of Economy and Finance to better understand how the country intends to tackle these challenges using long-term strategies to ensure economic sustainability and a better future for its people.

Mr. Maleiane is no stranger to challenges, having served as Governor of Mozambique’s central bank for some 15 years and later overlooking the founding of the country’s national investment and development bank, an institution he served for nearly 5 years as chairman before he was appointed Minister of Economy and …

Exim Bank US provides $4.7bn to Mozambique LNG

Export-Import (EXIM) bank United States said it is in the process of providing  $4.7 billion in financing the liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Mozambique.

Exim Bank United States fund is the largest commitment given by any lender towards the priciest hydrocarbon development in Africa.

The 13 Million Tonnes Per Annum LNG project will cost $20 billion to develop but Total which is in charge of the project is borrowing $14 billion from 28 financiers.

EXIM bank is one of eight Export Credit Agencies financing the project include Japan Bank for International Corporation (JBIC), Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI), UK Export Finance (UKEF), Servizi Assicurativi del Commercio Estero of Italy (SACE), Export Credit Insurance Corporation of South Africa (ECIC), Atradius Dutch State Business (Atradius) and Export-Import Bank of Thailand (EXIM Thailand).

There are 19 commercial banks financing the project in which Standard Bank of South Africa, is leading with …

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As the Mozambique LNG plant nears US$15B finance – making it the biggest private investment in Africa – two main points of view arise, diametrically opposed:

Also Read: Angola’s exceptional measures in force during sanitary enclosure

  • a more cautious short-term assessment identifies the current oversupply of natural gas worldwide, and a steep drop in price; in Asia, for instance, prices dipped so much that importers in China have released themselves from contracts claiming “force majeure”, a clause often invoked during natural disasters or war. Prices in Asia have fallen below US$3 per million British thermal units, whereas in mid-January it was comfortably above US$5/mmbtu.
  • long-term growth prospects for the second half of this decade are phenomenally promising, with Royal Dutch Shell stating that demand has already been rising (by 12.5% only last year) and it forecasts that this demand will double by 2040, reaching 700 million tonnes. The fact that
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A webinar organised by The Power & Electricity World Africa, entitled “Achieving Energy Security: Encouraging Healthy Competition And Regulation For IPPs”, took place on the morning of July 14th, 2020.

Also Read: Angola’s exceptional measures in force during sanitary enclosure

The attending virtual panel consisted of:

  • Dr. Clinton Carter-Brown, Energy Centre Head, CSIR, South Africa – Moderator
  • Vitor Marquez da Cruz, Managing Director, MC&A Advogados
  • Eng. Julius Riungu, CEO, Tsavo Power, Kenya

The topic of African Energy security and the challenges ahead was debated in a little over an hour, with very insightful contributions from all parties involved being brought to the forefront.

The imbalance of supply and demand for electricity in Africa curbs its potential for economic development. IPPs (Independent Power Producers), though, align very well with the national energy security agenda and are a definite solution to meeting Africa’s growing electricity needs.

Africa currently accounts for …

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Mozambique, Angola, Namibia, Ethiopia, Zambia, Rwanda, Uganda, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.

These are the African countries set to be allowed to enter the EU territory as the borders reopen in July, according to a draft list of the countries obtained and reported by euronews.

As the European Union gets ready to reopen its borders, officials in Brussels are debating behind closed doors, the draft of two lists; one with those countries that will be accepted, and one for those which will not, as the territory struggle to meet their previously announced July 1st goal.

The euronews sources also reported that officials “could not reach an agreement”, that talks would continue and that the deadline to open the borders may very well be extended beyond July 1st, suggesting agreements will not be forthcoming in time.

Also read: Air passengers travel confidence key to salvaging African airlines

Notably, Brazil, Qatar, …

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Following recent announcements from the government, Mozambique’s BNI (Banco Nacional de Investimentos) is about to launch two credit lines to assist the country’s SMEs to mitigate the effects of the COVID19 pandemic.

Small and medium companies represent the core of the country’s formal/ informal economy and have been heavily affected by the pandemic. The new credit lines are due to be officially announced by BNI this week and will address specifically SMEs, hospitality and education with an expected interest rate below the market rates.

Also Read: Legal pointers for Mozambique SMEs

The credit lines are meant to assist companies affected by COVID-19 in the entire country and are being financed by the government and the INSS. BNI expect the credit lines to address such issues as maintenance, restitution and the increase of jobs and household income as well as to provide some much breathing room cashflow in affected companies.

Although …

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further africaOn May 8th, Mozambican Constitutional Council decided that the acts regarding loans to Mozambican state-owned companies (Proindicus, S.A. and MAM, S.A.) and sovereign guarantees given by Mozambican Government are null, and consequently those loans are void.

Having the Mozambican Constitutional Council considered the debts and the guarantees unconstitutional, it means that they never had juridical existence in Mozambique, fact that is reinforced by the circumstance of both National Assembly (through a Parliamentary Inquiry Commission) and Administrative Court had never accepted them as legal.

Constitutional Council based its decision in the following arguments:

  1. Mozambican Government could not concede sovereign guarantees of such amounts, since they were superior to the legally established maximum amounts;
  2. to grant them, according with Mozambican Constitution, the Government would need to request a legislative authorization to National Assembly, which did not happened;
  3. Mozambican Government also violated Mozambican law when agreed loans that were not concessional, since it
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FurtherAfricaAfrica has some of the most expensive mobile data services in Africa. With the increase in connectivity via smartphones, people in emerging markets can use their portable devices for more things each passing day. Most of us have a smartphone with mobile data that we can carry anywhere and as soon as we step home we switch to our Wi-Fi not to overuse our mobile data; which is most of the time unfairly overcharged.

However some people do not have the privilege to afford both mobile data and internet at home, so they opt for the more expensive but more portable mobile data. Everyday, people in emerging African countries are forced to take this decision and are sometimes charged the most expensive prices in the world for mobile data. What is important to know also is the dependency and impact of smartphones in lower income communities.

With a difficulty in …

Corona Virus in Mozambique

FurtherAfricaAs long as Coronavirus pandemic spreads across the planet, National Governments take more measures. To acknowledge and accompany all policies daily adopted happens to be a difficult task. Considering this new reality, we present this Legal Guide, where companies and individuals may easily understand what are the most important laws and rules in force, regarding Coronavirus impact on economy and society.

State of Emergency Decree (Presidential Decree no. 11/2020, March 30)

State of Emergency takes effect between April 1st and 30th, although it has been extended until the 30th of May, on the 29th of April. Its declaration led to the implementation of several measures to mitigate the spread of the virus and safeguard public health, namely:

  • Mandatory domiciliary quarantine for 14 days to all people that recently travelled abroad and to those who had contact with confirmed cases of COVID-19. In these cases, it is strictly imperative to comply