This Wednesday, 6 September, the Niassa Provincial Business Council (CEP) held a working meeting with the African Development Bank (AfDB) as part of the “Conflict-Sensitive Private Sector Development and Investment in North Mozambique” initiative, which aims to better respond to the wishes and interests of the Mozambican government and the private sector in the three provinces of the northern region, namely Nampula, Cabo Delgado and Niassa.
At the meeting, the members of CEP-Niassa shared with the AfDB the constraints that prevent business from flourishing in the province, highlighting “difficulties in accessing finance combined with high interest rates, late payments to suppliers of goods and services to the state, poor access routes (roads and bridges), high fuel costs, climate change and the national and international economic climate”.
For their part, Niassa’s entrepreneurs considered the installation of a cement factory, a cooking oil refinery, a feed production plant and a graphite factory as “a breath of fresh air for improving the business environment in the region”.
The business community also pointed to the following as strategies for attracting more private investment to Niassa province: “the mapping of private companies in the province according to sector of activity, so as to facilitate the knowledge, characterisation and location of operators, both formal and informal, and the creation of cooperatives aimed at formalising the informal ones”.
