Bank of Mozambique launches Real-time Gross Settlement Platform
FILE: Maputo-Katembe bridge. [File photo: DW]
On September 11, 2018 REVIMO-Rede Viária de Moçambique SA was born in the Private Registry of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. One year and two months after its creation, REVIMO is announced as the winner of the tender to manage three majestic undertakings: the Maputo-Katembe Bridge, the Maputo Ring Road and National Road Number 6 (EN6), all resulting from credit exceeding US$1 billion provided by the Chinese state bank.
In October last year, the Mozambican government launched a public tender to award the management of the Maputo Ring Road and Maputo-Katembe Bridge and their connecting roads.
The concession of the Maputo-Katembe Bridge, the Maputo Ring Road and the EN6 to REVIDO was announced by the Council of Ministers at its 35th Ordinary Session last Tuesday, December 17th.
Who is REVIMO?
REVIMO, as referred to in the third article of its statutes, published in the government gazette [Boletim da República] No. 183 (Series III), is a public limited company that “has as its main object the construction, conservation and operation, under tolls systems, of roads and bridges and their related infrastructure, built or not yet built”.
For the time being, it has no known record of construction, nor the management of any business since its creation in September of last year. Likewise, no capacity or technical experience in the area of infrastructure is recognised.
‘Carta’ knows that the company was created to manage these ventures. Its owners are not known; REVIMO being a corporation, they are “protected” by the Commercial Code. Of REVIMO’s location, the Boletim da Republica reveals it is based in Maputo, the capital of the country.
According to the document, “the share capital, fully subscribed and paid up, in assets, is 660,000,000.00MT (six hundred and sixty million meticais), divided and represented by 66,000 (sixty-six thousand) shares, with a face value of 10,000.00 MT (ten thousand meticais) each”.
What will REVIMO manage?
The Maputo-Katembe Bridge is Africa’s largest suspension bridge and Mozambique’s most expensive infrastructure spend since independence. The bridge, which connects the two shores of Maputo Bay, including the 180-kilometres of road (Maputo-Ponta do Ouro and Bela-Vista-Boane), cost US$785 million, funded by EXIM Bank of the People’s Republic of China. The work was carried out by China Road Bridge and Corporation (CRBC). In all, the Maputo-Katembe Bridge project and the connecting roads currently have a total of three tolls.
The Maputo Ring Road has a total of six sections, with a total length of 74 km. The first 6.3 km section departs from the Radisson Blue Hotel to Costa do Sol. The second section runs from Costa do Sol to Marracuene – a stretch of 19.8 km. The third is the Chiango-Zimpeto stretch (10.5 km) and the fourth, Zimpeto-Marracuene (15.5 km). The fifth section of Maputo Ring Road is 16.2 km long and connects Zimpeto to Tchumene (EN4), and the last stretch goes from the Nó da Machava to the 16 de Junho Square, a 5.5 km route.
The Maputo Ring Road cost US$315 million, US$300m of which was funded by the EXIM Bank of China, the CRBC again carrying out the work. The road has no tolls yet, but four are expected to be installed.
The EN6 (Beira-Machipanda) is 288 kilometres long. Its recent rehabilitation cost US$410 million, also funded by EXIM Bank and the Government of Mozambique. The works carried out by Chinese company, Anhui Foreign Economic Construction (Group) Co., Ltd.
Three tolls are currently installed and will be operational by 2020. The amounts to be charged range from 90 to 2870 meticais, according to the class of vehicles. EN6 gives access to the hinterland countries from the port of Beira, serving as an important highway for goods of various types.
By Ilódio Bata
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