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O País
Customers of the mutual aid credit association known as ´The Chinese Bank’ (O Banco Chinês), which operated illegally in the city of Maputo, yesterday gathered once again in front of the Attorney General’s Office to demand answers about the lawsuit opened seven months ago. After two hours, the protesters were informed that the investigations were still ongoing and that they should return on March 8.
When the financial institution was wound up and the money seized by the Bank of Mozambique at the request of the Attorney General’s Office, 16,000 depositors were counted, who, encouraged by the high interest rates, had deposited even borrowed money.
“I am a simple peasant woman who decided to deposit some the money I got from doing some work to get some profit. Today, I have nothing and I do not know who to turn to. The only thing I want is to recover my 10,0000 meticais,” said Naponani Munguambe in an exasperated voice.
The depositors began to gather at 6:30 a.m., among them Alberto Muti, a resident of Massinga in Inhambane, who said he had deposited 200,000 meticais and had difficulty getting to Maputo.
“The 200,000 meticais that I deposited are very much needed and I no longer have the money to continue to come here to complain. It has already been seven months since they seized our money and from then up until now we have had no information,” Alberto said
The depositors’ representative who met the prosecutor in charge of the case asked for the case to be resolved with flexibility.
“The freezing of the money is crippling the lives of many families. And at this point we just want the process to go more quickly because a lot depends on that money. We were told to come back in a month, which we are not satisfied with,” Abilio Nhabinda said.
In July 2016 the Bank of Mozambique seized the assets of the illegal banking institution. Since then, the Attorney General’s Office has been clarifying the outlines of the operation, which attracted funds from depositors with monthly interest rates of about 30 percent.
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