Mozambique: $1.1B raised to renovate country’s main highway, out of a total $3.5B needed

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Mozambique: $1.1B raised to renovate country’s main highway, out of a total $3.5B needed

8:16 CAT | 30 May 2025

FILE - For illustration purposes only. Damaged road in Gorongosaa, Sofala Province. [File photo: AIM/Ferhat Momade]

Mozambique’s government announced on Thursday that it has secured $1.1 billion (€970 million) to rehabilitate National Highway Number 1 (N1), the country’s main road. This accounts for about a third of the total amount needed.

“As we have already mentioned, concerning the N1 – which is about 2,620 kilometres long – we have already raised around $1.1 billion, out of a total of around $3.5 billion needed to ensure the reconstruction will be done” said transport and logistics minister João Matlombe.

Responding in parliament to questions from MPs, the minister also said that Mozambique’s government faces “challenges” in raising the remaining resources, but promised efforts to ensure the total renovation of the N1.

As Lusa had reported on Wednesday, Mozambique will move forward with the project to rehabilitate another 340 kilometres of National Highway Number 1 (N1).

READ: Mozambique moves forward with project to rehabilitate part of the country’s main road

The data revealed by Matlombe earlier this Wednesday in parliament indicate that the “conceptual project” provides for the rehabilitation of 70 kilometres (km) of the Inchope-Gorongosa section in Sofala province, 176 km of Chimuara-Nicoadala in Zambezia, and work on 94 km of the Metoro-Pemba section in Cabo Delgado.

The N1 sections mentioned will be renovated under the World Bank’s $850 million (€797 million) financing package, with almost half of the amount to be spent in the first phase.

Minister Matlombe also announced on Wednesday that a tender had already been launched to select a contractor for the rehabilitation of 84 kilometres of theN1 Gorongosa-Caia stretch, in the centre of the country.

The Mozambican government acknowledged the need to rehabilitate the entire N1 given its advanced state of disrepair: “There is a need to ensure the rehabilitation and maintenance of about 2,620 km of the north-south link, as well as the main regional logistics corridors,” said Minister João Matlombe.

On 10 February, the Confederation of Economic Associations (CTA), which represents the Mozambican private sector, requested that the government rehabilitate the N1 as part of efforts to revive the economy following the post-election crisis.

At the end of a meeting between the private sector and the government, the president of the CTA’s Communication and Services department, Paulo Oliveira, said that the confederation had presented a set of measures to “alleviate some burdens, some taxes, and real proposals so that the (…) economy can develop, namely the upgrading of National Road 1, which is very important”.

“It is our backbone,” he declared.

Source: Lusa