The Mozambican government has ratified three credit agreements in which the Saudi Fund for Development (FSD) will finance road rehabilitation, hospital construction and a dam with 150 million dollars (139 million euros).
At stake are three agreements, each for a credit equivalent to 50 million dollars (46.5 million euros) and signed on 9 November in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, which were approved in January by the Council of Ministers of Mozambique, according to resolutions to which Lusa had access today.
The first of these agreements is intended to finance the project to rehabilitate and widen two sections of National Road 1 (N1) and the second for the project to build and equip five hospitals, under the presidential initiative “One District, One Hospital”, namely in Chimbonila (Niassa province), Ribáuè (Nampula), Mulumbo (Zambézia), Vanduzi (Manica) and Limpopo (Gaza).
The third agreement ratified by the Mozambican government will allow the FSD to finance the Muera dam construction project, on the Mueda Plateau, in Cabo Delgado province, in the north of the country.
On November 10 in Riyadh, Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi called for closer cooperation with Saudi Arabia through a “strategic partnership”, recognising that country as one of the few where “natural resources are not a curse”.
“The partnership between the Saudi kingdom and Africa focuses, among other things, on initiatives to pacify the world. And in this regard we maintain that peace is the cornerstone of our efforts to build a better future for our peoples, but a peace achieved through dialogue,” said the head of state, after speaking at the Saudi Arabia-Africa Summit in Riyadh.
“We argue that strengthening cooperative relations with this kingdom is vital, because we are in a context in which African governments are seeking to diversify their economies through strategic partnerships,” he added.
For Nyusi, the continent, and “particularly” Mozambique, have “comparative advantages in areas such as natural resources, renewable energies, agriculture and the blue economy” for this strengthening of relations with the Arab country.
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“Indeed, we have made it clear that the ‘Africa Development Initiative 2023-2033’, launched today, will lay the foundations for strengthening co-operation with mutual advantages towards the socio-economic development of our countries,” he said.
“Saudi Arabia is one of the few countries in which natural resources are not a curse, but the driving force behind the development and well-being of its people, and Africa could well learn from this reality,” concluded the Mozambican President at the time.
