Mozambique: Cross-border trade with Botswana was €53M in 2023

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Mozambique: Cross-border trade with Botswana was €53M in 2023

10:19 CAT | 15 Jul 2024

Photo: CTA

The Mozambican Confederation of Economic Associations (CTA), which brings together the private sector, on Friday announced a “remarkable growth” in trade with Botswana, with a turnover of €53.2 million over the last two years.

“The trade relationship between Mozambique and Botswana has seen remarkable growth in the last two years,” said the president of the CTA, Agostinho Vuma, during the opening of a business meeting between the two countries today in Maputo, as part of the visit to Mozambique by the head of state of that country.

Agostinho Vuma pointed out that trade between Mozambique and Botswana reached around $58 million (€53.2 million) in 2023, compared to around $8 million (€7.3 million) in 2021.

“This trend is explained by the growth in exports of products such as electricity, aluminium cables and wires and pasta,” explained the CTA president, who highlighted “improvements in the business environment” between the two countries.

Vuma invited businesspeople from Botswana to invest in Mozambique, especially in the areas of agriculture and agro-processing, energy, manufacturing, mineral resources, tourism, transport and logistics in order to “increase the levels of investment and trade between the two countries”.

Botswana’s minister of investment, trade and industry, Mmusi Kgafela, present at the business meeting, said that in 2023 alone his country exported products worth $708,000 (€650,000) to Mozambique, but considered the “turnover still low”.

He expressed his country’s interest in investing, above all, in logistics and transport, suggesting the creation of an air link between Botswana and Mozambique: “we are open to negotiating with global airlines to connect our two countries,” he said.

The president of Botswana, Mokgweetsi Masisi, ends his state visit to Mozambique today, where the two countries have already signed seven cooperation agreements in different sectors.

Source: Lusa