Government and private sector debate

The Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA) is today holding the 5th Business Environment Monitoring Council, with the aim of evaluating reforms approved during the XV Annual Private Sector Conference in March. The meeting will be attended by Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosário and Minister of Industry and Commerce Ragendra de Sousa, as well as CTA chairman Agostinho Vuma. Among the main themes of the Annual Private Sector Conference held in March were the lack of credit available to the private sector from commercial banks.

At the time, the lowest indicative interest rates for any loan were 28 percent, about ten times more than the average interest rate paid by companies to banks in Portugal in 2017, according to the Pordata database.

The CTA, which organised the meeting in tandem with the government, suggested that “financing facilities for the business sector” be analysed, and proposed the creation of a Financial Guarantee Fund.

The president of the main Mozambican employers’ confederation, Agostinho Vuma, also warned the government and the central bank of a potential “mass suffocation and bankruptcy” of companies in the country. “We have repeatedly highlighted the threat to Mozambican companies posed by the current economic situation and the way the state is always behind in the payment of invoices to the private sector,” the CTA president said, adding that a study was under way to quantify the number of companies that were declaring bankruptcy in the country. The Business Environment Monitoring Board was created to evaluate government reforms of the business environment in the country and ensure public-private dialogue.