IMF man heads central bank, but Nyusi warns him to resist foreign pressure – Hanlon

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IMF man heads central bank, but Nyusi warns him to resist foreign pressure – Hanlon

6:10 CAT | 05 Sep 2016

After nearly 30 years at the IMF and 39 years outside the country, Rogerio Zandamela has returned to Mozambique to head Banco de Mocambique (BdM). His surprise appointment was only announced on Wednesday 31 August and he was sworn in on Thursday. His main task will be to reach agreement with the IMF on how to deal with the $2.2 billion in secret debt, but he also faces rising inflation and rapid devaluation. After the swearing in, Zandamela said “we must restore trust in the Mozambican economy” and warned that there are “enormous sacrifices” ahead.

Born in Inhambane, Zandamela attended secondary school in the colonial era at Liceu Antonio Enes (now Escola Francisco Manyanga in Maputo) and in 1975 began to study economics at Universidade de Lourenco Marques (now Universidade Eduardo Mondlane) with a group of students that included the current Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosário. But with the help of the Catholic Church, he soon went to Italy to study, then on to France and finally the US where he gained a PhD at Johns Hopkins University. He started at the IMF in 1988. But he has retained contacts. Zandamela was keynote speaker at the June 2014 BdM annual seminar, where he spoke on monetary policy. And he told journalists Thursday he has always retained his Mozambican nationality and never took another one. (Savana, O Pais Economico 2 Sep)

He replaces Ernesto Gove who served two five-year terms and leaves tarnished, first by his claims to not have known about the secret debt, which if true means he was asleep at the wheel, and second by the exorbitant and grandiose new $300 mn BdM headquarters in Maputo now nearing completion.

Previous governors have been Gove (2006-2016), Adriano Maleiane (1992-2006 and now Minister of Economy and Finance), Eneas Comiche (1986-1991), Prakash Ratilal (1981-1986), Sergio Vieira (1978-1981) and Alberto Cassimo (1975-1978).

By: Joseph Hanlon

Source: News reports & clippings