UAE Businesses Want To Build Houses In Mozambique

UAE Businesses Want To Build Houses In Mozambique

Maputo, 18 Jan (AIM) – Businesses of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have expressed an interest in building about 5,000 houses in Mozambican cities.

Speaking at a press conference at the end of his working visit to the UAE, President Filipe Nyusi said the Emirati business people would prefer to build these houses in peripheral urban areas, with a significant population density, and where there are enough people with the financial capacity to buy the houses.

Nyusi added that the UAE government is also interested in participating financially in the rehabilitation of some stretches of Mozambique’s main north-south highway (EN1), which runs for over 1,500 kilometres along the entire length of the country. So far, the UAE has guaranteed about 25 million US dollars for this rehabilitation.

Nyusi said that the financing agreements on the ENI could be signed between the Mozambican and UAE governments in March.

But Mozambican motorists will also have to pay for the improvements to ENI through a series of tollgates. Once the road has been rehabilitated, subsequent maintenance should be ensured through the tolls.

“There is a clear will of the two countries that something must be done”, Nyusi declared. “We have to think sufficiently to find a solution rapidly. We are talking about 1,500 kilometres of road”.

The President said that, after his earlier visit to the Emirates last October, a technical team from the UAE had visited Mozambique, and travelled the full length of EN1, from Maputo to Negomano, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

That team estimated the financial needs of rehabilitation, and the viability of using tolls to cover later maintenance.

Nyusi added that Mozambican businesses have invited their Emirati counterparts to invest in livestock in Mozambique, particularly in the production of chickens. The chickens produced in Mozambique would be exported to the UAE and other Asian countries.

“So instead of us importing chickens, we could export them”, Nyusi said. “There is an immediate capacity, but it can be boosted”.

Livestock schemes could also include the export of goat meat to the UAE.
(AIM)
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