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File photo / Rogerio Zandamela
The governor of the Bank of Mozambique, Rogerio Zandamela, has insisted that the country’s President, Filipe Nyusi, does not interfere in the running of the central bank.
Speaking on Sunday at a meeting in the Portuguese town of Cascais, Zandamela criticized the system of granting favours to business people who have ties with political power, but said that in his case the opposite was true.
Cited by the Portuguese paper “Correio de Manha”, Zandamela said “my presence in the bank was a pragmatic choice. They understood that something had to be done” (he had previously been a high level official in the International Monetary Fund).
Nyusi gave no orders to the Bank of Mozambique, and Zandamela cited as examples of the Bank’s independence its hiking of interest rates last year, and its liquidation of “Nosso Banco” (Our Bank), a tiny bank with strong ties to members of the ruling Frelimo Party.
“We put interest rates where they had to be, and this had never been done before”, Zandamela said. “We closed a bank, which was unprecedented, and we intervened in some that were related to political power”.
The way the country had been functioning, Zandamela said, was “promiscuity between finance, business people and politicians”, and, as far as he was concerned the real problem “is not one of money, but of mentality”.
Far from being told what to do by Nyusi, “the President has greatly supported me”, he said. “I haven’t seen any political interference, and this shows the maturity of the President and his team”.
In a clear criticism of previous central bank governors, and previous Presidents, Zandamela said “what happened in the past was that a decision was taken, the businessmen or the bankers ran to the President asking for help, and the decision was not complied with”.
“We are one of the countries most blessed in the world in terms of resources”, said the governor, “but we need a development model that improves people’s lives as well as the economic indicators”. The high rates of growth Mozambique used to enjoy, of around eight per cent a year, distorted the reality of the country.
“Growth rates of seven or eight per cent a year hit the headlines of the international press”, said Zandamela, “but looking at what really interest us, which is our citizens, we’re not doing well, and the macro-economic policies are also not healthy’.
He feared that, with the current development model, “we’re going to have a lot of money,
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