Chapo calls on African countries to work together towards human development

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Chapo calls on African countries to work together towards human development

1:43 CAT | 05 Sep 2025

Photo: Presidency of the Republic of Mozambique

Mozambican President Daniel Chapo has called on African countries to work together to implement policies aimed at boosting human development because “Africa’s future should be built exclusively by us, no one will build it for the continent.”

According to the President, who was speaking at the 4th Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF) 2025 edition, which began on Thursday in Algiers, it is important for African peoples and countries to engage in intra-African trade and remain united, cohesive, and resilient to the adversities that will arise along the path to achieving intra-African free trade.

“If we don’t build the future of the African continent, no one will build it for us. Therefore, together we must do it, determined so that Africa will have a robust and developed market”, he said.

He highlighted challenges related to the development of one-stop borders across the African continent, acknowledging their enormous importance in facilitating business flexibility.

“It is necessary to unlock the borders because our borders are not real, they are artificial borders. Our culture is the same, our surnames are the same, our languages are the same, which clearly and unequivocally demonstrates that, as Africans, we need to forget this political-administrative division and see economic development as an integrated development among African brothers”, he added.

According to Chapo, Mozambique has several projects up its sleeve in the energy sector, as southern African countries face electricity shortages.

“Mozambique, given our geographic location, has the advantage of resources for energy production. We want to increase the capacity of the existing hydroelectric plant. We also want to build a new hydroelectric plant with a project capacity of approximately 1,500 MW, to increase energy availability in the southern African region”, he said.

He mentioned the Mphanda Nkuwa hydro-electric dam, to be built on the Zambezi river, in the central province of Tete, as one of the largest projects that the country has in the electricity sector. It will involve building a dam about 60 kilometres downstream from the existing dam at Cahora Bassa, and a power station that will generate 1,500 megawatts of power.

There will also be a high voltage transmission line running for 1,300 kilometers from the Zambezi Valley to Maputo.

“Also, through gas, we want to build more power plants to supply energy to our sister countries in the region. The Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) production projects in Cabo Delgado will also catalyse gas-based energy in southern Africa”, he said.

The Fair, which is aimed generating trade and investment agreements worth over 44 billion US dollars, was organized by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) in partnership with the African Union Commission and the AfCFTA.

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