Shortage of foreign currency threatens survival of companies

Maputo, 19 Feb (AIM) – 63 companies have submitted pending requests to the Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA) for the payment of import invoices for raw materials and goods, some of which have been awaiting settlement for more than six months due to a shortage of foreign currency in the country’s commercial banks.
According to Evaristo Madime, chairperson of the CTA industry portfolio Department, who was speaking to reporters on Tuesday, in Maputo, of these companies 41 per cent are from the industrial sector, 25 percent from aviation, and 21 per cent from general trade.

The payments requested are valued at 373 million dollars. “Even now that this presentation is taking place, we have received more cases pending payment.

Madime explained that as a result of the shortage of foreign currency on the national market, some air companies have decided to suspend flights to Mozambique, as well as selling their tickets from travel agencies based abroad.

“The CTA will submit the received documents to the Bank of Mozambique as material and quantitative proof that the problem of shortage of foreign currency is real and very serious, requiring the attention of the Governor of the Bank of Mozambique to find solutions”, he said.

For his part, the chairperson of the CTA’s Tourism, Hotels and Restaurants portfolio, Mohammad Abdullah, said that the shortage of foreign currency is undermining the economy and there are already effects on the travel and tourism sector.

“An airline that flies to Mozambique, when it starts having this kind of situation, the first action it takes is that the inventory available for sale in Mozambique in meticais is higher than the inventory available abroad. And then we all suffer, the country suffers, the economy suffers, projections suffer, business suffers, everything suffers, costs become higher”, he said.

“The third step is the most serious, which is to cut sales in the Mozambican market. For example, Ethiopian Airlines, which flies to Mozambique, has reduced its frequencies. It continues to fly, but has blocked the Mozambican market. All these are indicators of regression. Unfortunately, we are going backwards”, he added.

Mariamo Hassane, the head of the CTA Health portfolio, said that the central bank is only trying to pay for medicines, “but the health sector is vast, there’s medical and surgical equipment that they’re not considering.”

“When they see that it’s medical-surgical equipment, they don’t give it the same importance as medicine, but without medical-surgical equipment it’s also not possible to work in any hospital or provide quality health care”, he said.

Hassane explained that “in order to get to the hospital you need a car, and there is a fleet of vehicles that need maintenance and replacement parts have to be imported. Many of these vehicles, some of which are ambulances, are at a standstill. We have operators in the sector with invoices dating back to July 2024 and the problem is starting to get worse.”
(AIM)
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