Mozambique: Minister briefs Parliament on REVIMO

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Mozambique: Minister briefs Parliament on REVIMO

8:08 CAT | 11 Mar 2022

Photo: Parlamento

The publicly owned company REVIMO (Road Network of Mozambique) in its first two years of operation paid 162 million meticais (just over 2.5 million US dollars) to the state, according to a parliamentary briefing by the Minister of Public Works, Carlos Mesquita.

REVIMO is the company that was set up to build, maintain, and operate infrastructure that can be leased by the government such as roads and bridges, through a system of tolls.

Speaking in the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Wednesday, Mesquita explained that REVIMO had been contracted by the government because it is listed on the Mozambican stock exchange, making it more credible, allowing for various actors to play a part in the project and promoting public scrutiny.

The minister was responding to questions from deputies, largely hostile, about the installation of toll gates along some of the country’s main roads, including the 72 kilometre long Maputo Ring Road.

For the minister, the leasing of 550 kilometres of roads to REVIMO will result in the maintenance and rehabilitation of the network being carried out by the company using its own resources and toll fees. He added that “this frees up resources from the state budget for investment in other roads that face resource limitations”.

Mesquita added that the tolls will also cover the return on investments, operating costs, and the financial and administrative costs linked to the concession.

He warned that if the tolls had not been introduced, the annual maintenance cost would be 2.6 billion meticais which corresponds to 62 per cent of the state budget for road maintenance despite the REVIMO roads being only two per cent of the road network.

The minister pointed out that REVIMO is contractually obliged to carry out high levels of service efficiently. In the event of non-compliance, the government can trigger penalties that could lead to the termination of the concession contract and concluded: “deputies, rest assured that if REVIMO fails to comply with its obligation, we will not hesitate to activate the mechanisms provided in the contract”.

REVIMO has been granted the concessions to operate the Maputo Ring Road, the suspension Bridge over Maputo Bay and the roads connecting it to the South African border, and the Beira – Zimbabwe road in the centre of the country.

It is technically a private company, but all its shareholders are public bodies with 70 per cent of the shares held by the government’s Road Fund, 15 per cent by the National Social Security In

Source: AIM