Africa-Press – Mozambique. An audit of the Bank of Mozambique’s accounts for 2024 concluded that, since 2005, the state has left the institution’s exchange rate fluctuations unassumed, totalling 115.4 billion meticais (€1.53 billion).
According to the position of the auditing firm Forvis Mazars, independent auditor of the central bank’s 2024 financial statements, this position should align with the organic law of the Bank of Mozambique, which stipulates that ‘the Mozambican State must recognise debit balances from exchange rate fluctuations’, which ‘in turn must issue public debt securities in favour of the bank’.
“We have found that, since the 2005 financial year, the Mozambican State acknowledges its responsibilities in the accumulated amount of 115,366,652,000 meticais (€1.53 billion), quantified with reference to 31 December 2024,” reads the chapter on the “basis for qualified opinion” of the independent auditor, which is part of the central bank’s financial statements dated 30 June.
In addition, the same chapter added that the central bank “omitted to record in its individual and consolidated financial statements the interest and income associated with this Mozambican government debt, amounting to 27,648,902,000 meticais (€367 million)” as at 31 December.
The Bank of Mozambique recorded losses of 4.15 billion meticais (€54.9 million) in 2024 and sharply revised downwards the profits initially recorded in 2023, according to the financial statements.
The report, which the board approved on 30 June 2024, states that the net result for the 2024 financial year contrasts with profits of 886.2 million meticais (€11.7 million) in the previous year, revised downwards in this case from the initial figure of almost 2.34 billion meticais (€30.9 million).
“In 2024, the bank identified an anomaly in its IT system regarding the accounting of exchange rate variations on the maturity of term deposits and overnight deposits relating to previous years up to 2023. In this context, the bank made the necessary adjustment, which resulted in the retrospective restatement of the 2023 financial year,” the document reads.
The Bank of Mozambique ended 2024 with total assets growing to 759.2 billion meticais (€10 billion), compared to total liabilities that rose to 754.1 billion meticais (€9.9 billion), resulting in equity of 5.07 billion meticais (€67.1 million).
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