Mozambique: Still no date for the start of the N1 rehabilitation – Watch

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Mozambique: Still no date for the start of the N1 rehabilitation – Watch

2:07 CAT | 08 Jul 2025

Screen grab: TVM

For about three years, the government has been planning the rehabilitation of National Highway No. 1 (N1), the road that connects the north of the country, in Pemba (Cabo Delgado), to Maputo in the south, crossing six strategic provincial capitals, ensuring national logistics, over a distance of 2,477 km.

However, since the announcement of the project in August 2022, the executive has still not set a date for the start of the works. The reason is the lack of funds.

Although without specifying dates, the Minister of Transport and Logistics, João Matlombe, said this Monday (07) that work will start soon.

“We are currently working on preparing all the conditions for the start of the rehabilitation of the EN1. A series of studies were being carried out. We are talking about a road of approximately 2,477 km, of which approximately 1,000 km have already secured funding, but before the works could begin, a series of stages had to be completed and everything is happening as planned. We expect the government to formally announce the start of the works in the coming months,” said the minister.

Matlombe was speaking in Maputo on the sidelines of the opening of the pre-consultation seminar for the preparation of the preliminary draft of the Roads Law, carried out by the National Roads Administration (ANE).

Speaking to journalists, the minister admitted that the precariousness of the country’s roads is due to a lack of money, at a time when funding for the sector, through the specific consumption tax on each litre of fuel, fell by US$0.12 in 2009 to the current US$.0.05, one of the lowest rates in the region.

“The government does not have enough money to build roads. The problem is not the institutions. The National Roads Administration exists. The Roads Fund also exists, but it does not have funds.”

“Therefore, we need to understand that the problem in our country regarding roads is the lack of money and not a lack of will. However, what we are discussing is how we as a country can organise ourselves to identify different sources of funding. What we are doing now as a government is thinking about how to reinvent our economy to finance the roads sector. The focus is not and should not be on tolls”, stated the minister.

Matlombe gave the example of how, in the last rainy season of 2024/2025 alone, the definitive repair of damage caused to roads and bridges amounted to 8 billion meticais. However, the amount budgeted for emergency relief during that period was only 121 million meticais, equivalent to 1.5%. Another example that proves the lack of investment in the road sector is that Mozambique has a classified road network of approximately 25,000 kilometres, of which only about 15% are considered main and paved.

The lack of money has led to the postponement of the rehabilitation of the N1. The N1 rehabilitation project was first announced in August 2022 by the then Minister of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources, Carlos Mesquita, with the start date of the works initially scheduled for September of the same year, however, it did not materialise.

The N1 rehabilitation project involves rebuilding a total of 1,053 km of the road in three phases. The first phase covers the Inchope – Gorongosa (70 km), Gorongosa – Caia (168 km), Chimuara-Nicuadala (176 km) and Pemba – Metoro (94 km) sections. The second phase includes the Rio Save – Muxúnguè (110 km), Muxúnguè – Inchope (77.5 km), Metoro – Rio Lurio (74 km) sections and the completion of the Gorongosa – Caia (84 km) section. The last phase includes the Pambara – Rio Save (122 km) sections and the completion of the Muxúnguè – Inchope (77.5 km) section.

The investment is budgeted at 850 million US dollars, at a rate of US$850,000 per kilometre.