Utilities of Mozambique

utilities

Water

Since 1995 the government has encouraged private participation in the water supply industry through its National Water Policy. The government tendered a hybrid lease/management contract to the international consortium Aguas de Moçambique (AdeM) in 1999 to supply seven cities variously for between five and 15 years. However, issues arose regarding the arrangement, which were subsequently exacerbated by the draught. In 2010, the government bought 73 per cent shares in AdeM, bringing water supply back under state control. Presently two public companies own water and sewerage assets in the country: Fundo de Investimento e Património de Abastecimento de Água (FIPAG) in urban cities and Administração de Infra-estruturas de Abastecimento de Água e Saneamento (AIAS) in smaller towns, with only smaller scale independents operating outside of this. The World Bank has stated FIPAG is now ‘achieving full cost recovery and can graduate from government subsidies’. Yet external donors still finance approximately 85 per cent of public investments in the water sector. An estimated 51 per cent of the population have access to an improved water source (2011) with community-based donor organisations remaining in control of rural water infrastructure.

 

Telecoms

State-owned Telecomunicações de Moçambique (TDM) SARL is the principal telecoms provider, while its affiliate mCell is the primary mobile operator. Telecomunicações Móveis de Moçambique (TMM) owns mCell as a joint venture between TDM (76 per cent) and Detecon (24 per cent), the consultancy arm of Deutsche Telekom. The University Eduardo Mondlane is the largest internet service provider, while Teledata – a joint venture company between TDM and Marconi Portugal (Telecom de Portugal) – also holds a significant share of the market. TDM (Mozambique) holds a stake in the public–private partnership Eastern African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) – a multi-country, multi-partner fibre-optic cable project designed to connect the 21 participating African countries both to one another and globally. A vast number of publicly and privately owned entities comprise the ‘hybrid consortium’ of EASSy, which offers bandwidth cost reductions to member countries via its fibre-optic cable network. Some nine per cent of households have TV sets (2006). There are 14 personal computers per 1,000 people (2005).