Mozambique. Government failed to meet social security targets – CIP | AIM report

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Mozambique. Government failed to meet social security targets – CIP | AIM report

8:04 CAT | 18 Jul 2025

File photo: CIP

The Mozambican anti-corruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), has revealed that the government failed to meet the targets established in the National Basic Social Security Strategy (ENSSB), covering the 2016-2024 period.

According to the CIP report, the government failed to meet all the social indicators assessed, namely: the incidence of consumption poverty, the social inequality index, the number of beneficiaries and the execution of the budget for the Basic Social Allowance Programme (PSSB).

“In 2023 and 2024, only 23 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively, of the budgeted resources were actually executed by the delegations of the National Social Welfare Institute (INAS). This was due to the limited budgetary capacity conditioned by the country’s current economic situation. In addition, a significant part of these resources were used to cover administrative costs, including policing, fuel and allowances for technicians, and not necessarily to meet the needs of the beneficiaries”, reads the report [full text, in Portuguese, here ].

According to the document, the PSSB was aimed at covering 1,199,573 beneficiaries, of whom the great majority (1,009,500) were elderly citizens. The PSSB budget would have amounted to 0.78 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), equivalent to around 10.6 billion meticais (165.9 million dollars at the current exchange rate).

“However, by the end of 2024, the year in which the strategy was implemented, the level of achievement of the targets was lower than expected. During the implementation of this strategy, the incidence of consumer poverty increased by around 19%”, the study says.

“The PSSB budget coverage also fell short of expectations, standing at 0.02% of GDP. The number of beneficiaries reached by 2024 was 709,028, which represents 59 per cent of the forecast. Of the total target reached, 575,716 are elderly people, which is 57 per cent of the forecast for this target group”, explains the report.

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“The combination of poor allocation of resources and excessive use of these resources to meet administrative expenses has contributed to thousands of elderly people and their families not receiving the basic social allowance for two consecutive years, further aggravating their already precarious economic and social situation”, reads the report.

Among other problems, the report points to the mismanagement of funds as a major problem, including the embezzlement of about 12 million meticais involving 16 INAS employees from the southern province of Inhambane. The mismanagement of funds is also related to the lack of effective supervision, the lack of sectoral coordination, and structural and logistical limitations in INAS delegations.

Source: AIM