Mozambique: Government launches financing line for rural projects

The Mozambican Ministry of Planning and Development and Moza Banco, one of the country’s commercial banks, on Monday signed an agreement aimed at funding rural development projects. The project, which is part of the Financing line for Rural Enterprises (LFER), is budgeted at 11 million US dollars. “These resources are to provide financial support to companies and rural enterprises.

We know that in Mozambique 65 per cent of the population lives in rural areas, and that is where the great potential for the economic development of our country lies. But this initiative is also geared towards Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)”, he said. He claimed that “SMEs today represent more than 95 per cent of the Mozambican economic landscape.” According to the minister, the beneficiaries of this credit line have the mission of ensuring its continuity through repaying their loans.

“We know that access to financing is one of the biggest constraints on the growth of agricultural supply chains and rural entrepreneurs. It is precisely to respond to this challenge that the LFER was created”, he said. “We want to ensure that credit arrives in a structured, transparent and sustainable way, allowing productive projects to flourish and the positive impact to spread throughout the community”, he added.

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Valá warned that without repayment, “it will not be possible to expand the fund to other beneficiaries.” For his part, Manuel Soares, representative of the Executive Committee of Moza Banco, said that his institution will take responsibility for managing the line of credit, as the intermediary between the resources made available and the final beneficiaries. He declared that each cent applied will be aligned with rigorous technical criteria and the highest standards of integrity and transparency.

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