The latest report on the evolution of Mozambican public debt in the third quarter of 2025 shows an increase of 625.4 million meticais (€8.3 million) over three months. “This performance is essentially due to the acquisition of new financing by EMOSE [the state-owned insurer] of around 7.5 million dollars (€6.4 million),” the document said, also citing effects linked to the “expansion” of debt at the country’s largest public companies, including oil firm Petromoc, national airline LAM and rail and ports operator CFM. State-owned Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM) accounted for 32.97% of all internal debt held by Mozambique’s SOEs at the end of September, followed by Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (LAM) with 27.22% and Petromoc with 6.4%.
In 2025, the Mozambican government designated CFM and EMOSE, together with Hidroelétrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), to assume shareholder control of LAM. The debt of Mozambique’s SOEs had already risen by 7.15% in the second quarter of last year, to more than 39.582 billion meticais (€528.3 million). Previous reports indicate that Mozambique has 11 public companies, seven of which are fully state-owned and nine firms with minority state holdings currently in liquidation, according to government information released last year.
Revenue collected by Mozambique’s SOEs rose by 35% in 2024 to 12.3 billion meticais (€167.1 million), the government said in November during a parliamentary session, while defending measures to improve financial soundness. Responding to questions from lawmakers on the 2024 General State Account (CGE), Prime Minister Benvinda Levi said the government is moving ahead with measures to reduce fiscal risks at the SOEs, continuing the adoption and implementation of actions aimed at improving competitiveness and financial solidity. To that end, she said, the executive is focusing on restructuring the sector, with greater emphasis on financial and operational aspects and on an evaluation model based on the economic value added by managers of public companies and those majority-owned by the state.
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“This government focus is based on the fact that the state-owned enterprises, in 2024, contributed revenue of 12.3 billion meticais, derived from two main sources — dividends and proceeds from the sale of shareholdings and assets — which were channelled to the public treasury,” the prime minister said. Compared with the same period, the revenue collected increased by 35% from 9.1 billion meticais (€123.6 million) in 2023, she added. Levi said the government would continue concrete actions to improve public debt management through the implementation of the MERIDIAN information system, which is intended to improve debt data quality in terms of recording, servicing, monitoring and analysis.
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