Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Mozambican government expects within weeks to sign with the Bank of Mozambique the management agreement of the sovereign fund, financed by revenues from natural gas exploitation, allowing its operationalisation.
“We are at a very advanced stage. The management agreement with the central bank will be signed in the coming weeks, and we will begin the full operationalisation of the law that creates the Sovereign Fund of Mozambique [FSM],” the Secretary of State for Treasury and Budget of Mozambique said on Thursday.
Amílcar Tivane was speaking at a press conference in Maputo to clarify doubts raised in recent days following an opinion by the Administrative Tribunal, which pointed to a withdrawal of around US$33.6 million (€28.9 million) from the Sovereign Fund, relating to natural gas revenues prior to 2024.
Declining to comment on the content of the Administrative Tribunal’s opinion regarding the 2024 General State Account, Amílcar Tivane explained that this amount was channelled to the State Budget, to be used as “defined” in the legislation, particularly because these were revenues prior to the final approval of Sovereign Fund legislation, which took place in January 2024. This legislation established the allocation of 60% of taxes and royalties from gas and oil exploitation to the State Budget and 40% to the sovereign fund.
“What happened is that, before the law creating the Sovereign Fund of Mozambique (FSM) [was passed], revenues relating to production tax were used to finance the State Budget, as provided for by law,” Tivane said, rejecting any suggestion of fund misappropriation.
He added that, after the Sovereign Fund law came into force, its full operationalisation depending on the management agreement to be signed with the Bank of Mozambique, the amounts were “allocated to the transitional account”, to be distributed between the budget and the Sovereign Fund.
“All conditions are indeed in place for the legal provisions established in the law creating the FSM to be implemented, not forgetting that we have the 60-40% allocation mechanism,” he emphasised.
Therefore, Iivane rejects any suggestion of misappropriation or doubts about how the amounts were used, a topic that has been strongly discussed by Mozambican society in recent days due to the Administrative Court’s opinion.
“From an accounting perspective, the state has provided factual evidence, and the answer is simple: the extraction of natural resources began long before the law approving the Sovereign Fund came into force,” Tivane further stated, adding that, as of 23 October 2025, the balance of the transitional account is US$204.5 million (€176.1 million).
Parliament approved the creation of the e Sovereign Fund of Mozambique on 15 December 2023 with revenues from natural gas exploitation, which by the 2040s are expected to reach US$6,000 million (€5,169 million) annually.
For More News And Analysis About Mozambique Follow Africa-Press
