IMF believes kidnappings harm business environment

Maputo, 28 Feb (AIM) – The representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Mozambique, Alexis Meyer Cirkel, believes that the kidnappings that have plagued Mozambican cities since 2011 have now reached alarming proportions, and are harming the business environment.

According to Cirkel, who was speaking to reporters on Tuesday, in Maputo, on the sidelines of a seminar organized by the Planning and Budget Commission of the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, “there is certainly an impact. The public insecurity generated by kidnappings has an impact on the willingness to invest”.

“Investors, who feel threatened, end up cancelling planned investments.”, he added “However, we haven’t yet carried out a quantitative study to define the real economic impact of the phenomenon”.

Preliminary data from a study carried out last year by the Confederation of Mozambican Business Associations (CTA) points out that kidnappers have already pocketed 2.2 billion Meticais (31.3 million dollars at the current exchange rate) in ransoms.

The last case of kidnapping took place two weeks ago, when a businessman from the Mozambican Hindu community, known as Dharmendra, was kidnapped a few meters from a military barracks on Amílcar Cabral Avenue, in the up-market Maputo neighbourhood of Sommershield.

Recently, the Secretary General of the Mozambican Chamber of Commerce (CCM), Teresa Muenda, condemned the increase in kidnapping cases, arguing that “at any moment, the kidnappings will no longer be limited to business people, but could include any citizen”.

Faced with this imminent risk, she called on the government and society as a whole “to join forces to combat this evil.”

(AIM)

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