The Mozambican textile industry is showing signs of revitalisation, with MozTex, an investment by the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), consolidating its position in the market and projecting itself as one of the main clothing suppliers in southern Africa, according to Lusa.
With an annual production of 5.8 million pieces exported mainly to South Africa, the factory in Matola, on the outskirts of Maputo, is a symbol of the sector’s recovery after the collapse of the former TEXLOM, once the country’s biggest textile reference.
‘Our production has been leveraged from year to year. From 2022 to 2023, for example, we increased production by 1.5 million pieces, reaching 5.8 million units exported to South Africa,’ revealed Rui Carimo, deputy of the Aga Khan Network’s diplomatic representative.
MozTex was created 15 years ago with an investment of more than 6 million dollars (384 million meticals), to rehabilitate the facilities of the former TEXLOM, which for decades played a strategic role in the Mozambican textile sector. The process was not easy and, according to Rui Carimo, the company’s first 12 years saw losses, mainly due to the challenge of retraining the local labour force.
‘The first big investment was training. We had to train the workers from scratch because there was no experience in the sector,’ he explained. Today, the company has around 1,300 employees, the majority of whom are women.
In addition to the economic impact, the project has become a benchmark for social inclusion, offering training and job opportunities to hundreds of women. Among them is Carla António, who started out as a labourer and today leads a team within the company.
‘I was trained in 2009 and then trained to train other workers. In the beginning, many didn’t even know how to put a thread on a needle. Today, we have a skilled workforce,’ she told Lusa.
Celeste Alexandre, another MozTex employee, emphasises the transformation that the training has brought to her life. ‘When I joined, I didn’t know anything. But I learnt here and today I even have my own machine at home, which allows me to generate extra income,’ she said.
With sustained growth, MozTex is looking to expand its presence in the regional market and consolidate Mozambique as a competitive textile centre in southern Africa. The company is negotiating to expand its export network and is committed to diversifying its production.
The investment by the Aga Khan Network, which initially responded to an appeal from the Mozambican state to revitalise the sector, is already showing concrete results. Now, the ambition is to expand production and strengthen the country’s position in the regional textile industry.
‘This is a long-term project. We want Mozambique to once again become a leading textile centre, taking advantage of the experience we have already implemented in Kenya,’ concluded Rui Carimo.
With the success of MozTex, Mozambique is starting to find its way back to recovering its status as a textile power in southern Africa, by investing in the qualification of its labour force and attracting new markets.
