Mozambique: Government admits gas stations’ difficulties in obtaining bank guarantees

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Mozambique: Government admits gas stations’ difficulties in obtaining bank guarantees

7:58 CAT | 01 Apr 2025

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: AIM]

The Mozambican Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy has admitted that gas stations are having difficulties in obtaining guarantees from commercial banks to make products available due to the shortage of foreign currency, but assured that there is fuel in the country.

“There is fuel in the country. What is happening is that some gas stations are having some difficulties in obtaining guarantees from commercial banks so that the fuel (…) can be made available to the market,” said the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Estêvão Pale, speaking on Sunday on the sidelines of a retreat for the department’s staff to discuss legislation for the sector in Ponta do Ouro, Maputo province, southern Mozambique.

The issue is the lack of fuel at gas stations, already reported in the cities of Pemba, in the province of Cabo Delgado, and in Beira, in the province of Sofala, and said to be leading to price speculation.

“But this process [guarantees from commercial banks] is being handled, not only with commercial banks but also at the level of the central bank, which guarantees that there is enough currency for this,” Minister Pale said.

Fuel retailers in Mozambique to Lusa on March 24 that there were “fluctuations” in the supply and provision of these products in the country, but guaranteed that there was no shortage of stock.

“At the moment we are facing some fluctuations in the supply of fuels (…), what I can say in relation to these fluctuations is that at some point some filling stations might be left without one of the fuels,” explained the president of the Association of Fuel Retailers of Mozambique (Arcomoc), Nelson Mavimbe, in an interview with Lusa.

The Mozambican President, Daniel Chapo, even pointed out the use of maritime transport for fuel from Nampula to Cabo Delgado.
“We may have challenges in Cabo Delgado such as the issue related to fuel, and in this regard we are already organizing ourselves so that, via cabotage, via sea, we can load the fuel from the port of Nacala [Nampula] to Cabo Delgado and this loading will be possible until we restore the route,” he said.

Source: Lusa