Mozambique: Most FDEL projects have no money

The Mozambican government is unable to finance all the projects presented by young people under the Local Economic Development Fund (FDEL). “Disbursements are delayed, and the government faces a budget deficit. The project is being implemented, but implementation is not progressing at the speed we would like”, he said.

Last November, the Minister of Planning and Development, Salim Vala, told the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, that the government had allocated 1.5 billion meticais (about 23 million US dollars, at the current exchange rate) from the State Budget for 2026 to FDEL. According to Impissa, despite the budget deficit, some districts in the southern province of Inhambane and the northern provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado have received the funds to implement the projects. “There are some districts, if not all, in the province of Inhambane, some in the province of Nampula, and some in Cabo Delgado that have already received the amounts so that the projects may be funded”, he said, without saying exactly how much money is involved.

Money from the FDEL is intended to take the form of loans, not grants. People whose projects are approved must repay the money with interest. This is a re-edition of a project launched about three decades ago by the then President Amando Guebuza, which involved distributing seven million meticais (about 110,000 US dollars, at the current exchange rate, but worth much more at the time) to every district in the country.

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The money was intended to fund viable projects that would create jobs and boost food security. Known as “the seven million”, this scheme went on for year after year, but was never audited. Like FDEL, the money of the seven million was supposed to be repaid, but there was no sign of any repayment.

Nobody was ever taken to court for this vast misappropriation of public resources. The current government guarantees that this time it will be different, that the money will be repaid and that FDEL will operate as a revolving fund.

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