The president of the Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA), Agostinho Vuma, reiterated on Monday 30 October that the high state of degradation of National Road Number 1 (N1) has compromised the satisfactory performance of national companies.
According to Vuma, the transport of goods by land has not been viable, as journey times tend to increase due to the road not being in suitable condition.
“We recently lost a thousand-foot container. In terms of value, we’re talking about 650,000 meticais. The poor state of the road, coupled with current fuel prices, increases the cost of transporting goods,” explained Agostinho Vuma, during a meeting in Maputo with a delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Last March, the Mozambican government announced that the first phase of the rehabilitation work on the N1 would begin this year, with funding of 410 million dollars from the World Bank.
The total length of the N1 that needs to be rehabilitated is 1,053 kilometres of the 2,600 kilometres of road and, for this purpose, the World Bank indicated in August that it would make 850 million dollars available, with almost half of the envelope going to the first phase.
