The World Bank’s vice president for Eastern and Southern Africa, Victoria Kwakwa, on Wednesday gave a positive assessment of the return of life to the streets of Palma and Mocímboa da Praia, near the gas projects in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique.
“I am happy with what I have seen: it is encouraging to see vibrant economic activity in the markets, it is nice to see young people training, construction and agriculture,” she said.
Kwakwa today passed through the region, in northern Mozambique, which has suffered an armed insurgency since 2017, whose attacks led to the suspension of gas projects in 2021.
A coalition of Rwandan and Southern African Development Community (SADC) troops helped Mozambican forces free the area of the multinational investments, which are due to restart this year.
French oil company TotalEnergies said it is assessing security and respect for human rights to decide, but local companies and subcontractor Saipem have already said the resumption of construction work will happen mid-year.
“What is happening in the north is very significant and I wanted to see the stabilisation efforts” that open doors for “big economic activities, like natural gas projects,” Victoria Kwakwa said.
“The World Bank is helping the residents to have access to basic living conditions and essential services” and to try and make them “better than they were before”, she concluded.
On her first visit to Mozambique, Kwakwa plans to focus on the government’s reform plan, the causes of the country’s weaknesses, and increasing Mozambique’s resilience.
The agenda includes meetings with the Mozambican president, prime minister, minister of economy and finance and governor of the central bank, among others, days after the organisation approved a new partnership framework with the country until 2027.
The new partnership framework, approved on 24 February, provides for a focus on “greener development” over the next five years, mainly by creating opportunities for low-skilled labour outside subsistence agriculture, the bank said.
Lusa