PMR - Professional Management Review

The World Bank in August pledged US$79m in support of the Moçambican education sector. The money has been granted under the Education for All – Fast Track Initiative (FTI), for 2008 to 2010. The first instalment, of $30m, will be made this year. The grant comes from the Catalytic Fund that was set up in 2003 to support the FTI, and is managed by the World Bank. The funding comes from 11 western donors and, so far, grants have been made to 18 countries, most of them in Africa.

The grant will be channelled through the Education Sector Support Fund (FASE), to support the Ministry of Education in implementing its strategic plan.

coalmininggains importance

Moçambican authorities have issued 125 licences for coal exploration to date, mostly in the western Province of Tete (96 licences) and the northern Province of Niassa (18). Minister of Mineral Resources, Esperanca Bias said at a meeting with the holders of coal licences in Maputo, “75 of these licences were issued over 3 years ago. Some of the companies are, or should be, in the phase of pre-viability or viability studies for their projects. We want to see value addition to our coal inside the Country rather than simply exporting it all.” She urged companies to design projects maximising the use of coal within Moçambique for the extraction of methane gas and its use, and gasification and diesel production from coal.

Tete Province has enormous reserves of high quality coking but, currently, only one small mine is in operation, Chipanga XI, a mine once run by the now defunct state-owned coal company, Carbomoc. The current leaseholder is Minas de Moatize, which has employed 200 former Carbomoc workers.

This mine has a production plan of just 5 000t of coal a month with current production around 4 500t a month. About 30% is used by local sugar and tobacco industries, and the rest is exported to Malawi, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia and the DRC.

Brazilian mining giant Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) is the only company that has moved from an exploration licence to a mining concession. Its concession area in Moatize district has known reserves of at least 2.4bn ton.

Australian company Riversdale says that the area covered by its licence at Benga, 10km from Moatize town, has reserves of 1.9bn ton. Changara Investments, a subsidiary of the London-based CAMEC (Central African Mining and Exploration Company) says that it has inferred reserves of over 900m ton in one licensed area, west of the Zambezi.

However, all companies face the same problem – how to transport the coal for export to the coast. The Sena railway line, from Moatize to the port of Beira, will only be rehabilitated by mid 2009. It was comprehensively damaged during the war of destabilisation.

swissreduce developmentaid

Switzerland is reducing its development support to Moçambique over concerns of corruption. Sweden earlier this year announced to also reduce its aid. Germany, Austria, Ireland and Spain, however, will increase in budget support.

Giorgino Dhima, Deputy Resident Director of the Swiss Development Cooperation agency (SDC), said reduction in aid is based on dissatisfaction with the Government’s governance in general, and corruption in particular.

He also claimed that there was a lack of ‘continual dialogue’ between the Government and its partners. It was a matter of concern that the Government missed targets, since these were defined jointly, and were not simply imposed by the donors.