Maputo, 19 Jun (AIM) – Mozambican Prime Minister Benvinda Levi has announced that Japanese businesspeople have expressed an interest in investing in the Mphanda Nkuwa hydro-electric project, on the Zambezi river, in the central province of Tete.
The Mphanda Nkuwa project involves building a dam about 60 kilometres downstream from the existing dam at Cahora Bassa, and a power station that will generate 1,500 megawatts of electricity. There will also be a high voltage transmission line running for 1,300 kilometres from the Zambezi Valley to Maputo.
The construction of the dam and power station is budgeted at 5.5 billion US dollars. During the construction phase, Mphanda Nkuwa will employ about 7,000 workers, and once the power is being generated there will be 3,000 permanent jobs, 95 percent of them occupied by Mozambicans.
According to Levi, who was speaking to reporters at the end of her five-day visit to Japan as part of Mozambique’s participation in Expo Osaka 2025, the Japanese investors also showed an interest in exploring for natural gas in the Rovuma Basin, off the coast of the northern province of Cabo Delgado.
“The meetings with Japanese investors served to put into perspective the effective implementation of natural resource exploration projects underway in the country, highlighting natural gas exploration in the Rovuma Basin and the construction of the Mphanda Nkuwa Dam”, she said.
“It would be very important to identify concrete projects and invest in them. For example, for Japan, the Nacala Corridor and the Port of Nacala are strategic. That’s why we shared with Japan the business opportunities that exist along that corridor because it’s the area that interests them”, she added.
Levi believes that Expo Osaka, which is an event that runs until October, is serving to strengthen socio-economic cooperation by publicizing Mozambique’s potential.
“Expo Osaka was an exhibition that made it possible to showcase the best that Mozambique has to offer, particularly if we bear in mind that technology was the driving force in this exhibition. It made it possible to show that there are talents in Mozambique, but it also made it possible to show the potential through the panels that were on display there”, she said.
During her visit to Japan, the Prime Minister met behind closed doors with representatives of the multinational Mitsui and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), who also expressed their interest in continuing to invest in Mozambique.
(AIM)
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