The Compact II Development Office in Mozambique, which has funding of 500 million dollars made available by the United States of America (USA) through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), plans to launch a tender in 2024 for the construction of a new bridge over the Licungo River and a ring road in Zambézia province, in the centre of the country.
“The existing bridge over the Licungo River is congested, has exceeded its useful life and is no longer suitable. It has been damaged twice by floods since it was built in the 1940s, and there are no practical alternatives for heavy lorries to cross,” says a document published on Thursday 28 December by Lusa.
The note also stresses that the organisation intends to publish a “Specific Announcement” and launch the tenders for the works during the first few months of next year.
MCC is an external support agency funded by the US government that provides subsidies to developing countries, and the board of directors announced this funding compact, called the Mozambique Coastal Connectivity and Resilience Compact, the second since 2007, last June.
In this second compact, the focus is on improving transport networks in rural areas, encouraging commercial agriculture through political and fiscal reforms and improving coastal livelihoods through climate resilience initiatives.
Almost 83.5 million dollars are earmarked for the construction of rural roads and 11 million dollars for road maintenance.
The Reforms and Investment in Agricultural Projects (PRIA) component has been allocated 30 million dollars, half of which is for the Agricultural Investment Tax reform package and the other half for setting up the Commercial Aggregation Platform in Zambézia province.
The third structural component, worth 100 million dollars, is aimed at Coastal Livelihood and Climate Resilience (CLCR) projects to strengthen productivity “through sustainable increases in fish and shellfish harvesting and through non-extractive activities”, but also using “sustainable ecosystem benefits, such as carbon credits and coastal protection benefits”.
