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The Mozambican prime minister said today that the government expects the companies that received the loans hidden in public accounts to pay part of the debts and the that the state will only take on that part [of those borrowings] it deems is in the public interest.
“We want to make it clear that, under these debts, what is in the public interest the state will take over and the part relating to the commercial component must be paid by the respective companies,” Carlos Agostinho do Rosario told a press conference earlier today.
According to the prime minister, the government is working to “ensure that companies begin their activities and honour their commitments” and prevent their debts from “falling on citizens’ pockets”.
The government yesterday confirmed state-guaranteed debt of US$622 million in favour of Proindicus and US$535 million in favour of Mozambique Asset Management.
The prime minister said the Proindicus money was for security services to oil companies and maritime protection, while Mozambique Asset Management provides services to Proindicus, in order to prevent the outflow of foreign exchange for the repair and maintenance of vessels .
Mozambique Asset Management, Minister of Economy and Finance Adriano Maleine said at the same press conference, is owned 98 percent by GIPS, a company owned by the state information services.
Maleiane said that, while continuing work to determine what is public and private in the operation of these companies, the state would honour the guarantees provided, as it had in the case of the US$850 million Ematum loan, which has since been converted into sovereign debt.
The prime minister noted yesterday that the release dates of these projects had been the subject of “a change in assumptions” which, in the case of Proindicus, depended on orders from Anadarko and ENI, the leaders of the two natural gas exploration consortia operating in Cabo Delgado province.
“The assumption was that Anadarko, ENI and other companies could be operating in 2017 and that it would not be necessary to trigger the state guarantees,” do Rosario said, but now the consortia have not yet even taken their final investment decisions.
According to the minister of economy and finance, the Proindicus debt will be repaid over five years at an interest rate of 3.75 percent, with the first instalment of US$24 million due in May and the others due annually at an average of US$119 millions.
As for MAM, the loan is four years at an interest rate of 7.7 percent, with the first US$134 million instalment also due in May.
“The company has to find solutions for this instalment, and I am sure it will do so,” Maleiane said, saying the goal was “preventing the [state] budget being overloaded”.
In addition to these charges, the government has acknowledged the existence of a bilateral debt of US$ 221.1 million contracted between 2009 and 2014, “in the context of strengthening its capacity to ensure public order and security”.
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