Peace Fund should not depend entirely on state

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Peace Fund should not depend entirely on state

8:43 CAT | 16 Aug 2017

File photo / President Filipe Nyusi

The Peace and National Reconciliation Fund (FPRN) should cease to depend entirely on the state as its source of finance, urged Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Wednesday.

Speaking during an extraordinary meeting of the Ministry of Veterans’ Affairs in Maputo, Nyusi said the Fund should look for “other solutions” that would make it sustainable.

The purpose of the FPRN is to promote an entrepreneurial spirit among demobilised soldiers, both from the armed forces and from the Renamo rebel army. It will provide loans to finance development projects and business initiatives of former soldiers.

From August 2015 to June this year the FPRN financed 1,727 projects, providing them with a total sum of 436.2 million meticais (7.15 million US dollars, at current exchange rates).

The Ministry has registered 169,932 former fighters, who were demobilised between 1986 and the present. There is certainly not enough money in the FPRN to provide financing for projects from all of these people. The Fund management told Nyusi that the ratio is just 2,000 meticais for each former soldier.

Nyusi concluded that this is not a burden that the State should bear on its own. “We are at a phase when the Fund cannot depend solely on the state”, he said. “We want you to be creative people and to use your imagination”.

“Mechanisms must be found to make the Fund sustainable, which manage to bring more resources into the Fund and make the system more comprehensive”, the President urged.

He also wanted to see a balanced, and rational use of the money, so that it reaches all former fighters who submit projects.

Nyusi said there was an excessive concentration of projects funded in Maputo City and Province, although these are not the parts of the country where most of the demobilised soldiers live.

Source: AIM