The Bank of Mozambique (BoM) revealed that, despite an increase in the participation of Mozambican nationals, more than 80 per cent of the share capital of Mozambican banks by the end of 2023 was of foreign origin, coming from countries like South Africa and Portugal.
In its annual report for 2023, the central bank explained that foreign capital in national banking totalled 46.1 billion meticals, corresponding to 82.6% of the banks’ total share capital, with the remaining 9.7 billion meticals representing the volume of participation by nationals.
According to the BoM, Banco Comercial e de Investimentos (BCI), led by the Portuguese group Caixa Geral de Depósitos, maintained its position as the institution with the largest share capital, with 10 billion meticals.
‘In terms of the proportion of ownership of banks by country, South African capital continued to dominate the national financial system, remaining at around 29.5 per cent, followed by Portuguese capital, which stood at 25.30 per cent (compared to 26.71 per cent in 2022). Mozambique’s share of the banks‘ share capital stood at 17.4 per cent, with Namibia having the lowest proportion (0.002 per cent),’ the document pointed out.
The report also recognised that the level of concentration in total assets, credit and deposits in the five largest banks continued to fall in 2023, with them concentrating 75.7% of total assets, 72.1% of credit and 81.4% of deposits, figures that represent reductions of 2.1, 0.4 and 0.6 percentage points, respectively, compared to 2022’.
‘The banking system in Mozambique, which has 15 banks, remained stable, resilient, well capitalised and with satisfactory levels of profitability in 2023, a situation attested to by the increase in assets and rise in profits, as well as the solvency ratio remaining above double the minimum required level,’ he said.
