‘Food, jobs, hope’: Mozambique seeks investment route to economic recovery

Maputo, Mozambique – Down the main aisle of a bustling league pavilion successful Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, Lucia Matimele stands surrounded by lush greenish leaves, peppers connected the stalk, and bunches of ripe bananas.

“We person land, we person water, we person farmers!” she enthuses. “What we request is investment.”

Matimele is the manager of manufacture and commerce for Gaza province, a portion astir 200km (125 miles) distant that is 1 of the country’s main breadbaskets. She and her squad packed up immoderate of their astir promising crops and joined thousands of others – from wrong and extracurricular Mozambique – to grounds their wares and marque manufacture connections arsenic the authorities works to beforehand economical maturation and improvement successful what has been a politically challenging year.

More than 3,000 exhibitors from astir 30 countries are successful Mozambique this week for the 60th yearly Maputo International Trade Fair (FACIM) – the largest of its benignant successful the country. Tens of thousands are expected to be the seven-day event, the authorities said.

Crowds of exhibitors and anxious attendees gathered astatine the sprawling league tract connected the outskirts of Maputo for time 1 of the lawsuit connected Monday. A twelve pavilions are hosting section businesses, provincial manufacture leaders, specified arsenic Matimele, and determination and planetary companies looking to commercialized successful oregon with Mozambique.

Standing earlier delegates and businesspeople astatine the opening ceremony, Mozambican President Daniel Chapo focused connected the request to guarantee a bully situation for overseas investors, portion besides gathering an inclusive and sustainable section economy.

President Daniel Chapo astatine the opening of FACIM 2025 [Courtesy of Mozambican Ministry of Economy]

“Mozambique has a geostrategic location, with ports, improvement corridors and assorted different potentialities; immense resources, mineral, natural, agricultural, tourist, and supra each a humble, hard-working, affable and welcoming people,” Chapo said successful Portuguese, highlighting the country’s “unique opportunities” for planetary partners.

But astatine home, helium affirmed, “economic independency starts with agriculture workers, farmers, the youth, women – each of america together”.

With that successful mind, the government, with financing from the World Bank, has instituted a caller $40m Mutual Guarantee Fund to assistance concern tiny and mean enterprises successful the country. It volition supply recognition guarantees to astatine slightest 15,000 businesses and aims to assistance chiefly women and young people, the president said.

“One of the concerns we perceive repeatedly astatine each the yearly backstage assemblage conferences is the trouble successful accessing financing,” Chapo said portion launching the money astatine FACIM connected Monday.

“We cognize that precocious involvement rates person been astir insurmountable barriers for small- and medium-sized businesses, which correspond the bosom of the nationalist concern fabric, hence the instauration of this fund, specifically dedicated to this radical of companies, due to the fact that they are liable for 90 percent of the dynamism of our economy, generating income chiefly for young people.”

He added: “This instrumentality is not conscionable a fiscal mechanism, it is simply a span to the betterment of the Mozambican economy.”

‘We tin provender our radical best’

Mozambique has “ample resources”, the World Bank says, including arable land, abundant h2o sources, energy, mineral resources and earthy state deposits.

However, its gross home merchandise (GDP) maturation for 2025 is projected to beryllium conscionable 3 percent (it was 1.8 percent successful 2024 and 5.4 percent successful 2023).

Experts constituent to a raft of challenges facing the Southern African nation: for years it was besieged by a $2bn “hidden debt” corruption ungraded that implicated elder authorities officials; it is inactive recovering from post-2024 predetermination protests that affected tourism; and it faces an ongoing rebellion by equipped fighters successful the bluish Cabo Delgado province, location to offshore liquefied earthy state (LNG) reserves.

FACIM 2025 successful Maputo, Mozambique [Sumayya Ismail/Al Jazeera]

The equipped rebellion has halted TotalEnergies’ $20bn LNG project, and, with it, enactment added strain connected the region’s finances and near-future economical prospects, noted Borges Nhamirre, a Mozambican researcher connected information and governance with the Institute for Security Studies.

“The system of Mozambique was prepared for the adjacent 20, 30 years to trust connected earthy resources … But present the astir caller occupation is the insurgency successful the bluish portion of the country. So that affects the system of Mozambique deeply,” Nhamirre said.

“And unfortunately, Mozambique did not diversify the root of revenues, did not put successful different sectors similar agriculture, industry, manufacturing – relying mostly connected earthy gas,” helium added.

“Mozambique needs to stake connected producing its ain food,” the researcher said, noting that it is not affordable to support importing erstwhile the state has the imaginable to provender itself. “The onshore for agriculture is there, h2o is there. So, the occupation is conscionable mentality and a spot of capital.”

At her booth successful 1 of the pavilions astatine FACIM, Matimele has akin thoughts. “We tin provender our radical best,” she said, surrounded by caller nutrient from tiny farms successful Gaza province. Across the aisle from her, different booth boasts supplies from the state of Tete: grains, seafood, vegetables, livestock; portion passim FACIM, businesses are selling locally sourced items, including java and honey.

In Gaza, Matimele says, radical workplace rice, bananas, cashews and macadamias, overmuch of which they nonstop overseas to countries specified arsenic South Africa and Vietnam – and she would similar to summation exports and scope caller places.

The situation for them is not production, but processing and distribution, she says.

“We request large manufacture getting into this business,” Matimele said, adding that tiny farmers request guarantees that what they nutrient volition beryllium sold and not spell to waste.

“FACIM helps america by giving america a unafraid market,” she explained.

The Mozambican state of Tete displays nutrient and wares astatine its FACIM pavilion [Sumayya Ismail/Al Jazeera]

Without funding, ‘you volition get stuck’

For different observers, FACIM’s absorption this twelvemonth connected concern and the Mutual Guarantee Fund are a measurement successful the close direction, particularly for tiny concern owners successful the cultivation sector.

“Agriculture is our main resource. It employs millions of radical and feeds millions more,” said Rafael Shikhani, a Mozambican historiographer and researcher. Yet, determination remains a longstanding “problem” with the sector, helium noted from Maputo.

“[Historically], we person had truthful galore breakups successful that [agriculture] cycle,” helium said, highlighting the 1977-92 civilian war, and successful the midst of that, a terrible drought that deed the state from 1982 to 1984. “It was a benignant of disruption to production,” helium said, 1 that has had ripple effects.

Current challenges facing Mozambican agriculture, the researcher said, see a deficiency of superior for farming, arsenic good arsenic immoderate radical preferring to instrumentality an easier way by importing nutrient from neighbouring South Africa to merchantability locally alternatively of increasing it from scratch.

“In galore areas, the backing is simply a cardinal motivation,” Shikhani said. “If you don’t person funds, you tin [still] commencement a precise bully business, but determination volition beryllium a definite mode you volition get stuck – you’ll request equipment, you’ll request to wage people, you’ll request a truck, you’ll request to enactment up a fence; for whatever, you volition request money.”

That is wherever the Mutual Guarantee Fund could travel successful handy.

“More concern successful agriculture is good,” Shikhani said. It volition besides assistance the assemblage germinate from individuals farming tiny plots of onshore to tiny and medium-sized farming businesses that marque much informed choices astir “the benignant of land, wherever you farm, and however you exploit your land”.

President Daniel Chapo and delegates astatine FACIM 2025 [Courtesy of Ministry of Economy]

For expert Nhamirre, the mode the Chapo authorities goes astir tackling the country’s astir pressing economical issues volition spell a agelong mode successful determining the outcome.

But helium remarks that outer factors, specified arsenic the equipped rebellion successful the northbound and interior governance issues, volition besides play a part.

“There are interior things that the authorities needs to bash good … The radical are inactive precise frustrated,” helium said, pointing to the past year’s post-election violence, saying determination is simply a accidental protests whitethorn flare up again.

Meanwhile, Shikhani looks astatine the contented done a historian’s lens. “There is simply a rhythm of crisis: if determination is an economical crisis, it leads to a governmental crisis, and it leads to societal unrest. If you woody with economics and you provender people, determination volition beryllium nary much societal unrest, and determination volition beryllium nary governmental crisis. So, you commencement with economics,” helium said.

“Give radical food, springiness radical jobs, springiness radical anticipation – they volition enactment and marque money.”

At her booth successful FACIM, Matimele and her squad basal acceptable successful matching reddish shirts emblazoned with the words: “Gaza, the way of progress” successful Portuguese. Ahead of them is simply a week of networking that they anticipation volition pb to much – much food, much jobs, much hope.

“Investment is the close mode to follow,” said the provincial manufacture chief. “If we person investment, we tin lick each the issues.”