Mozambique 26 Jan: The whiff of a scandal, disputed figures, and energy project updates
Good afternoon from Zitamar News' twice-weekly newsletter, bringing you the latest developments in Mozambique. Zitamar is a new online publication bringing daily news and analysis to an English-speaking audience.
A new scandal appears to be unfolding today with a splash in weekly newspaper Magazine Independente claiming that the INSS, Mozambique’s state social security corporation, has agreed to put $7 million into CR Aviation, a private company that flies small aircraft to tourist destinations around Mozambique and Kruger Park. One of the owners of the company, Magazine says, is Rogerio Manuel, head of the influential private sector lobby group CTA.
An MoU reproduced in Magazine shows the INSS intended to buy 15% of the company for $3 million, and lend the company a further $4 million to buy, insure and maintain four new aircraft. According to the paper, Minister of Labour Vitoria Diogo has ordered the parties to pull out of the deal, which has not yet gone through as the aviation company must first list on the stock exchange to be eligible for INSS investment.
Whether or not the story is true, the injured parties have apparently gone into damage prevention mode, trying to buy up all the copies of Magazine in town according to PR expert Egido Vaz. According to comments on his post on Facebook – where he has uploaded a digital copy of the story for all to download – hard copies of the paper now have a street value of up to 70MT versus a cover price of 30MT. A lesson in how not to do PR.
It will be interesting to follow as the story develops – but reports in the press should be handled with care, a lesson that was reinforced for Zitamar News this week. On Monday we published an eye-catching statistic we’d spotted on the front page of Friday’s Noticias, quoting the manager of Nacala port saying traffic had dropped 90% from 95,000 containers in 2014 to 9,000 in 2015.
SEE: Nacala port traffic down 90% in 2015 [UPDATED]
Two readers got in touch to tell us this figure was wide of the mark – and one supplied a report from Portos do Norte, the company managing the port, that showed that by the end of November 2015 Nacala had handled more than 70,000 containers, putting it on course for a total only slightly smaller than that in 2014. We are committed to accuracy and responsibility for our mistakes, and promptly published a correction. Our apologies to our readers for having taken the original report at face value.
SEE: Update: Figures show Nacala port traffic down ~15% in 2015
Also yesterday, we reported on a potential new project to build a 40MW hydropower plant on the Limpopo in Gaza province. A new dam there should help the province deal better with both floods and droughts, and the government now wants to hire a consultant to work out what other opportunities – such as a power plant – could be added to the project.
SEE: New Mozambique dam could feature 40 MW hydropower PPP
This morning, we took a deeper look at the deal which should see Shanghai Electric Power build the country’s first coal-fired power plant, having agreed to take over the Ncondezi project in Tete. The project will depend on electricity utility EDM and the environment ministry approving a change to the more commonly used pulverised coal technology, rather than the relatively untested CFB that Ncondezi originally won approval for.
SEE: Ncondezi Power may need to reapply for environmental approval
Finally, in the oil and gas sector, we revealed that petroleum regulator INP is still working on the model exploration and production concession contract before it starts negotiating with the winning bidders – principally Exxon – in the 5th licensing round which closed last year. Talks with the consortia are at least a month away, INP told Zitamar News.
SEE: INP: Talks with 5th oil round winners at least a month away
Have a good week.