Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Mozambican Minister of Finance, Carla Loveira, has announced that over 204 million dollars from natural gas revenues have been channeled to the country’s sovereign wealth fund.
The sovereign fund, which was established over the last year, is aimed at controlling revenues from the production of liquefied natural gas from offshore areas 1 and 4 of the Rovuma Basin, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. Mozambique has the third largest natural gas reserves in Africa, estimated at 180 trillion cubic feet.
The fund has the mission of overseeing the revenue achieved in the first 15 years, of which 40 per cent is earmarked for the fund and 60 per cent for the State Budget.
The Minister’s announcement follows a statement by the Administrative Tribunal (AT), the body responsible for checking the legality of Mozambican public expenditure, claiming that the government, which was then headed by President Filipe Nyusi, failed to channel part of the gas revenues to the sovereign wealth fund.
According to the AT document, Mozambique Rovuma Venture (MRV) – a joint venture owned by ExxonMobil, the Italian energy company ENI, and CNPC of China – paid the state about 33.6 million US dollars in taxes on hydrocarbon production. However, there was only confirmation that 24.6 million dollars was channeled into the State Budget, which means that the remaining nine million dollars is missing.
In order to solve the problem detected, the Tribunal has called on the government to reorganize the General State Account, bringing clarity, accuracy, and simplicity to it. This means that the government has to substantiate the figures and present them again.
According to Loveira, who was speaking on Wednesday in the southern municipality of Matola, at a coordinating meeting on the Economic and Social Plan and State Budget for 2026, the sovereign wealth fund capitalization depends on the signing of a management agreement between the Public Treasury and the Central Bank.
“Data from October 23, 2025, points out that the balance in the transitional account is approximately 204.5 million US dollars, under the terms of gas revenues,” she said.
The Minister explained that the sovereign fund must guarantee good governance, transparency and accountability in the management of revenues from natural resources, “preventing their volatile or unproductive use.”
According to the minister, in the third quarter of 2025, the collection of State Revenue reached 263.8 billion Meticais (4.1 billion US dollars, at the current exchange rate) corresponding to 68.4 per cent of the annual forecast.
Loveira also denounced mismanagement and excessive debt in publicly-owned companies, claiming that some of these companies are a burden on state finances.
“The poor performance of the public sector is due to serious mismanagement, excessive debt, and a lack of accountability. These situations are absolutely unacceptable and intolerable. Public and privately owned companies must be managed with the same rigor, discipline and transparency”, she said.
According to the minister, measures must be taken to reverse this scenario. “It is necessary to adopt strategies to ensure that each public company is evaluated by objective criteria of financial performance and integrity in management. Audit and control mechanisms must be implemented through clear programme contracts, measurable targets and mandatory performance reports”.
The Minister also said that another challenge facing the national economy is the unsustainability of the public debt, which continues to exceed limits, currently standing at over 73 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“We are developing a set of reforms aimed at ensuring the sustainability of the public debt, which include the preparation of a Public Debt Management Strategy covering the period from 2025 to 2029; the revision of the regulations establishing the legal framework for the capital market; and the identification of specialized advisory services in matters of public debt”, the minister said.
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