Presidente da CTA, Agostinho Vuma (a direita) e director executivo da UBA, Rotimi Morohunfola no acto da assinatura do acordo
Maputo, 28 Mar (AIM) – The multinational United Bank for Africa (UBA) intends to disburse 50 million dollars to support and boost the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Mozambique.
To this end, the head of the Mozambican Confederation of Business Associations (CTA), Agostinho Vuma, and the UBA’s executive director, Rotimi Morohunfola, signed on Wednesday, in Maputo, a Memorandum of Understanding.
The amount will be invested to finance projects in the transport and logistics, agro-processing and pharmaceutical sectors, starting at 15,000 dollars.
According to Vuma, speaking at the signing ceremony, “the amount will contribute greatly to boosting the SMEs, considering that they represent 98 per cent of Mozambique’s business structure, contributing about 48 per cent of jobs in Mozambique”
There is, he said, a significant disparity in access to and availability of financial services between different segments of the population, since most of the financing is concentrated in urban regions, particularly in Maputo province and city.
“Access to finance is seen as one of the most significant limitations to economic development, given that 16 per cent of funding goes to the primary and secondary sectors and only two per cent of credit goes to agriculture”, he said.
He deplored the trend in recent times of a drop in funds allocated to the two main sectors of Mozambican economic activity, namely agriculture and industry.
“This is mainly due to the preference of financial intermediary resources for other sectors, particularly trade and tourism, due to the lower risk and greater return capacity of the loans granted for the dynamic development of these sectors”. Vuma said.
For his part, the UBA executive director said that, through the largest entrepreneurship programme in Africa, UBA has selected 52 young Mozambicans to receive funding worth 250,000 dollars for 2024, which will be invested in the areas of agriculture, commerce, fashion and Information and Communication Technologies.
“We reiterate our commitment to providing better solutions for business growth and working with the CTA and other institutions for Mozambique’s development”, he said.
(AIM)
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