Maputo: THE Mozambican government and the African Development Bank (AfDB) on Monday signed agreements worth US$22.3 million to rehabilitate dams and promote agricultural business.
About US$15.4 million, the largest portion, is earmarked for the Agricultural Value Chain and Youth Empowerment Project, which is aimed at boosting market-oriented production in the south of the country, a Ministry of Economy and Finance statement announces.
The majority of Mozambicans practice subsistence agriculture.
The rest of the donation money will fund the completion of rehabilitation work on the Massingir dam , which irrigates parts of the Limpopo Basin in the south of the country. Once completed, Massingir dam is expected to increase agricultural production.
The AfDB’s Strategic Paper on Mozambique 2018-2022, released in August, says the bank’s priorities are “structural transformation, industrialisation and remediation of the fragilities that hinder or impede the country’s economic development.”
The paper also notes that financial aid to Mozambique up to the end of 2019 will be limited to US$81 million because of the country’s excessive indebtedness, which forestalls access to sovereign financing.
At the end of last year, the AfDB had 19 operations underway in Mozambique, amounting to more than US$660 million, 80.9% financed by loans and with agriculture and energy accounting for almost 25% of the total.
Source: Lusa
