By Manuel Mucari and Custodio Cossa
Maputo — The World Bank aims to provide Mozambique with $6bn of mostly concessional financing for its public investment projects over the next five years, a senior bank official said on Monday.
The country’s public finances are under strain, with the IMF sounding a warning about worsening debt dynamics last week after an annual review.
“We have a balance sheet of around $3bn on the bank side, and we’re hoping to mobilise another $3bn,” Fily Sissoko, World Bank division director for Mozambique, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles and Comoros, told reporters.
Sissoko said the World Bank financing earmarked to support the government’s development strategy is “very concessional” and mostly grants.
The Washington-based lender also hopes to mobilise another $4bn of funding for the private sector, and Mozambique could receive $921m in support as part of an allocation under the World Bank’s 21st replenishment of the International Development Association.
“This partnership framework is essentially aimed at ensuring macro-fiscal consolidation, with a view to sustaining economic recovery,” Mozambique finance minister Carla Louveira said.
While optimism surrounds the resumption of a major liquefied natural gas project led by French energy company TotalEnergies, the IMF and others have highlighted significant economic challenges in Mozambique, including debt-service delays and large and persistent fiscal deficits.
The country has been hit by frequent cyclones and floods that scientists say have been worsened by climate change. It also faces an Islamic State-backed insurgency in the north.
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