Mozambique: Govt planning ‘robust’ laws on extractive sector to yield more funds

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Mozambique: Govt planning ‘robust’ laws on extractive sector to yield more funds

9:59 CAT | 15 Jul 2025

Photo: Ministério dos Recursos Minerais e Energia - MIREME

Mozambique’s minister for mineral resources and energy, Estêvão Pale, said on Monday that the country is developing “robust, inclusive and representative” legal instruments for the extractive sector in order to generate more financial resources.

“The dynamics of the extractive industry, combined with global market transformations and growing demand for natural resources, impose on the government the responsibility to strengthen its role in the management, regulation and control of the sector, ensuring that it generates more concrete gains and benefits for Mozambicans,” the minister said yesterday in Inhambane, south of the country.

Speaking during the launch of the Public Consultation Programme in the provinces on legal reform of the extractive sector, the minister said that contributions from the public sector, including the domestic private business community, would help to create “robust legal instruments that are inclusive and representative of the aspirations of the Mozambican people”.

Among the main legal instruments under review are the proposed revision of the mining, oil and electricity laws, as well as the draft bill on local content, the latter of which has sparked debate in various circles, especially in the business community, which has asked for more time to gather opinions on the proposal, whose objective is to ensure that Mozambican goods and services are contracted by gas and mineral megaprojects.

“This is a time for active listening. A time when the government wants to hear the voice of the provinces, local communities, businesses, civil society organisations, traditional leaders, young people and women,” said Pale.

He also highlighted this phase as “decisive” for updating and modernising the legal framework that will govern the mining, energy and oil sectors in the country in the coming years: “The development we want for Mozambique requires fair, transparent and effective laws”.

“As a government, we reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that this process is conducted in an organised and serious manner and with an open spirit of dialogue. We want to facilitate the participation of all segments of society,” added the minister.

The Public Consultation Programme, which is part of the review of the legal framework for the extractive sector that began on 29 March, is an incentive for debate with various segments of civil society and the domestic business community, with a view to gathering contributions on the main legal instruments under review.

The Mozambican government wants to move forward with a law that requires oil and gas companies in the country to purchase locally produced goods and services and hire local labour.

In the draft law consulted by Lusa, the Mozambican executive wants megaprojects to give priority to the acquisition of goods, services and works produced and provided in the territory by Mozambican companies, including training and development of the national business community.

The government’s proposal also suggests the creation of a Local Content Agency, which should be “a legal entity under public law, with administrative, financial and patrimonial autonomy, supervised by the ministry that oversees the oil sector”.

Mozambique has three approved development projects for the exploration of natural gas reserves in the Rovuma basin, classified among the largest in the world, off the coast of Cabo Delgado.

In addition to these, other major coal exploration projects are underway in the central province of Tete and natural gas extraction in the province of Inhambane.

Source: Lusa