Maputo, Aug. 18, 2025 (Lusa) - Up until June, the Mozambican state collected $210 million (€179.3 million) from oil and natural gas exploration, revenues invested in the Mozambican Sovereign Fund (FSM), more than in the whole of 2024.
Data from the Ministry of Finance's economic and social balance sheet on the implementation of the State Budget from January to June, analysed by Lusa, indicates that these revenues include $164.69 million (€140.6 million) from 2024, and $45.24 million (€38.6 million) from the first half of the year.
"They were deposited in the Transitional Account based at the Bank of Mozambique, under the terms of Article 6 of Law No. 1/2024 of 9 January, which creates the Sovereign Fund of Mozambique," the document reads.
In the whole of 2024 - the first year of the new fund - these revenues delivered to the FSM totalled $158.8 million (€135.5 million), according to previous government figures.
The first chairman of the FSM Supervisory Committee, Emanuel Chaves, said in May that his goal was to make sure that the natural gas revenues would be channelled and applied in a "transparent" way.
"We're going to ensure (...) that the 40% [of the proceeds from natural gas exports] that must be deposited in the FSM account is getting there, [that] it's being properly managed (...) and is being applied in a responsible, transparent way," Emanuel Chaves told reporters after being elected to the post by parliament on Thursday.
On 15 December 2023, parliament, which is responsible for appointing the Supervisory Committee, approved the creation of the FSM with revenues from natural gas exploration, which by the 2040s should reach $6 billion (€5.123 billion) a year.
Emanuel Chaves, who has more than 30 years in the civil aviation sector and is also a university lecturer, said that the committee would study and visit "successful cases" of sovereign wealth funds in other countries and define the best guidelines.
On 13 May, the Civic Movement on the WSF considered the government's intention to use the fund to finance social projects to be illegal, as provided for in the 2025 State Budget, approved that month in parliament.
"This is illegal, it's a violation, it violates the law, because the [WSF] law already clearly states that you can't withdraw from the sovereign fund at will. The government has to justify why the portion that goes to the Sovereign Fund, corresponding to 40%, is no longer going, it has to justify this in the document [Economic and Social Plan and State Budget - PESOE 2025]," Fátima Mimbire, coordinator of the Civic Movement on the Sovereign Fund, which brings together civil society organisations, told Lusa.
For Fátima Mimbire, the government has not yet justified, nor is it included in the PESOE, the reason for using the percentage of the GSF to finance social and economic projects: "In the PESOE this is not clear. So, in what document does the government explain that it needs to withdraw this 40% to invest in these areas? Who did you consult? Who did you ask for authorisation to reach this decision?"
The 2025 PESOE defines 15 projects to be financed this year by the FSM, such as maintaining “95% or more coverage of fully vaccinated children under the age of one”, with 416.4 million meticais (€5.7 million), or the allocation of means of production to 468,169 households, with 201.3 million meticais (€2.8 million), and the expansion and rehabilitation of water supply infrastructures, with 679 million meticais (€9.4 million).
There are plans to purchase and distribute 15,080,550 school books for all primary schools, for 779.5 million meticais (€10.8 million), or to build 12 secondary schools "according to the standard of quality and resilience", for 311.6 million meticais (€4.3 million) and 214 primary school classrooms for 225.8 million meticais (€3.1 million), among others.
PVJ/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
