Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Bank of Mozambique recorded a 2023 profit of more than 2,727 million meticais (€39.5 million) in 2023, recovering from the losses of 2022, according to the consolidated accounts for last year, to which Lusa had access on Monday.
According to the central bank document, in 2022 it had recorded a net loss for the year of 171.7 million meticais (€2.5 million).
The central bank ended 2023 with total assets of 652,008 million meticais (€9.454 billion), up from 626,914 million meticais (€9.090 billion) the previous year, while liabilities also increased, from 623,612 million meticais (€9.042 billion) to 649,649 million meticais (€9.420 billion) last year.
As of 31 December 2023, the Ban of Mozambique had total equity of more than 2,358 million meticais (€34.2 million), a sharp drop from the 3,302 million meticais (€47.9 million) the previous year, according to the consolidated accounts.
The central bank paid at least $45 million (€41.6 million) to domestic financial institutions that lent money to Proíndicus, the state enterprise that contracted the so-called “hidden debts” that unleashed a major political and financial scandal, the institution’s governor, Rogério Zandamela, said on 28 March.
“I’m not going to hide it from you; we used our reserves to pay these small creditors,” said Zandamela, during a news conference on the results of the meeting of the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (CPMO).
According to the governor, between $45 million €41.6 million) and $46 million (€42.5 million) were disbursed for this purpose “for our banks,” which include BIM, Moza Banco and BCI.
He said that the agreement with the banks that had lent money to the Proíndicus project was the result of an understanding between the state and UBS, the institution that acquired Credit Suisse, also a Proíndicus creditor.
The governor maintained that Mozambique’s creditors were not in a position to write off the Proíndicus debt because it would mean giving up important resources for the nation’s financial system.
Mozambique paid off $142 million (€130 million), mainly in domestic debt, to financial institutions as part of an out-of-court settlement to end a dispute in the London Commercial Court over “hidden debt” cases, according to information from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) consulted in January by Lusa.
In the IMF report on the evaluation of its assistance programme for Mozambique, in which it reports on the payment of the aforementioned amount, the IMF states that in an effort to strengthen governance and transparency and resolve costly disputes related to loans to state-owned enterprises, the authorities in Mozambique reached an out-of-court settlement on part of the Proíndicus debt in October 2023.
The agreement, it said, covers around $522 million (€478.6 million) of the outstanding capital and includes a cash component of $46 million and the issuance of national treasury bonds (6.2 billion meticais over six years, equivalent to 96 million dollars).
The African country is seeking $3.1 billion (€2.8 billion) in damages, compensation and indemnity from the shipping group Privinvest and its owner, Iskandar Safa, whom it accuses of paying bribes to public officials, including former minister of finance Manuel Chang, who signed the sovereign guarantees on the loans.
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