Mozambican businesspeople today called on the central bank to act swiftly to stop the shortage of foreign currency in the country, arguing that this is the solution to avoid a fuel shortage.
“Let there be speed in its implementation [of measures] to ensure that the fuel sector can supply the stations on our home soil before it’s too late,” said the president of the Confederation of Mozambican Economic Associations (CTA), which brings together the private sector, at a press conference in Maputo.
At issue is the shortage of fuel at filling stations, especially in the country’s main urban centers, some of which are seeing huge queues and others without petrol or diesel, a situation that businesspeople point to as a consequence of the lack of foreign currency on the market.
The Bank of Mozambique is adopting measures to increase the availability of foreign currency, at a time when the country is facing limitations that are already constraining both supply chains and fuel.
In information to which Lusa had access, the central bank said it had approved “normative instruments” at the beginning of April to “provide greater flexibility in the management of foreign currency by intermediary banks, given the current socio-economic situation”.
One of the notices approved “increases, from the current 30% to 50%, the conversion rate resulting from export revenues from goods, services and investment income abroad”, a regime that “will be in force for a period of 18 months”.
Another of the notices involves the “regime for the repatriation and conversion of income from the re-export of oil products”, in which banks “will now fully convert income from the re-export of oil products”.
In addition, it approved a notice that establishes an “exceptional regime” in the percentages “of minimum regulatory provisions on overdue credit, to be in force for a period of 12 months, to promote the ‘expansion of banks’ capacity to grant credit”.
The Mozambican government said on April 11 that fuel reserves are “guaranteed” and that the lack of product in various parts of the country is due to problems with distributors’ bank guarantees.
And the government spokesman, Inocêncio Impissa, guaranteed that the fuel situation in Mozambique “has shown stability”, with a “regular supply of the product available on the market”.
Lusa
