Public Private Partnerships of Mozambique

Like many African states, Mozambique is attracted to the use of PPPs to manage its infrastructural deficit and supply strategic investment specialism to the government. Uniquely, many PPP programmes in Mozambique were brought into operation without the existence of an established legal PPP framework, namely: the Trans African Concessions consortium (TRAC), the ports of Maputo, Beira and Nacala, and the Ressano Garcia, Sena and Machipanda, and Nacala railways. In 2011, the government finally passed a law on Public Private Partnerships, Large Scale Projects and Company Concessions to bring about standardisation of procedures to instigate a new raft of projects, which was revised in 2013. The Mozambique Government hosted the OECD Development Centre Seminar on Public–Private Partnerships in Maputo and met in 2013 with the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries to discuss PPP collaboration. Investment is largely sought by the government for projects in provinces and districts outside Maputo, where capital stock, infrastructural endowments and standards of living are much lower, such as Tete and Nampula. South Africa has been a highly prominent force in Mozambique growth through investment, providing almost US$2 million to selected projects during the period 1992–2009, chiefly in the areas of industry and energy. South African foreign direct investment is also helping to launch Mozambique’s tourism industry with projects totalling over $600 million.

Mining

The majority of mining (and mineral processing) operations are currently privately owned, with aluminium a boom area. South African investors are major players in the extraction sector, funding the vast Mozal aluminium smelter plant (in which the government holds a 3.9 per cent stake) and the natural gas extraction and pipeline project, Sasol. New coal mining projects have emerged in Vale and Rio Tinto in Tete Province. The Moatize coal mine in Tete province operates under a PPP model between the Mozambique Government, International Finance Corporation and Baobab Resources, a London-based exploration company.

Projects have followed mining reforms by the Mozambique Government to make the sector more penetrable by foreign investment in the wake of the civil war. The key players undertaking research to establish the viability of opportunities in the gas industry include Enron Oil and Gas Resources and Energy Africa. Ressano Garcia is currently the world’s largest cross-border interim power plant. Companies that have gained prospecting rights to look for oil in the country include Houston-based Anadarko from the USA and ENI of Italy. The distribution and marketing of fuel products in Mozambique is carried out by the state-owned Petromoc and BP, Mobil and Caltex, while Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos de Mocambique has sole rights to explore and develop petroleum.