The Minister of Industry and Trade, Silvino Moreno, expressed the importance and urgency of strengthening the capacity of the Credit Line for Agricultural Commercialisation (LCCA), an instrument co-financed by the Cereals Institute of Mozambique (ICM) and Gapi.
“We all recognise Gapi and its role. We are very pleased with the performance in implementing this credit line and recognise the need to mobilise more resources to strengthen it, given the growing demand and its strategic relevance,” said the minister.
According to a press release, this instrument is available throughout the country through the 15 branches of Gapi-Sociedade de Investimentos and its ten project implementation units, which work to finance hundreds of small and medium-sized traders involved in distributing the produce of hundreds of thousands of peasant families.
From its creation in 2019 until the end of 2023, the LCCA has financed 357 credit operations totalling 425.2 million meticals. Around 40 per cent of these operations were carried out by citizens under the age of 35.
During a ceremony in Mandimba, Gapi’s northern regional director, Salomão Chaile, emphasised that the LCCA “is an example of a partnership that promotes food and nutritional security and inclusive development”. “In Mozambique’s economic and social structure, these two components are interdependent. One cannot exist without the other,” he emphasised.
Chaile also pointed out that “agricultural commercialisation is fundamental to food and nutrition security, because if peasant production does not translate into income that allows them to purchase other goods and services, including other foods, there will be no incentive for peasants to abandon their traditional methods of subsistence and, consequently, they will be more vulnerable.”
During the ceremony, Salomão Chaile invited public and private entities to participate in the LCCA’s financial and management structure, to jointly strengthen the rural trade network and stimulate the production and valorisation of agricultural surpluses. He concluded: “there is no need to reinvent the wheel” in terms of financial instruments to improve agricultural commercialisation in Mozambique.
