Economist Felisberto Dinis Navalha has been appointed Governor of the Banco de Moçambique after President Daniel Chapo revoked the decrees that had placed Waldemar de Sousa at the helm of the central bank and Navalha himself in the deputy governorship. The presidency cited ‘supervening circumstances’ without elaborating.
President Chapo named Felisberto Dinis Navalha as Governor of the Banco de Moçambique (BdM) and Benedita Maria Guimino as Deputy Governor, completely reversing the leadership arrangement announced less than 24 hours earlier for the central bank.
On the evening of Monday, 31 August, the presidency had announced the appointment of Waldemar Fernando de Sousa as Governor and Felisberto Navalha as Deputy Governor. The inauguration of both was initially scheduled for Tuesday, 1 September, at 08h00.
The ceremony never took place. It was first postponed to Wednesday, 2 September, at 07h30, on the instructions of the President. Hours later, a new communiqué announced the revocation of both decrees and the selection of an entirely different leadership.
‘The new appointments follow the President of the Republic’s revocation, on grounds of supervening circumstances, of the decrees through which he had appointed Waldemar Fernando de Sousa as Governor of the Banco de Moçambique and Felisberto Dinis Navalha as Deputy Governor of the same institution,’ the official statement read.
Waldemar de Sousa was thus stripped of his designation as Governor-elect before formally taking office. The decree appointing Felisberto Navalha as Deputy Governor was also revoked, but only to make way for a new decision placing him at the top of the institution. Benedita Guimino, who was already a member of the BdM’s Board of Directors, was chosen as Deputy Governor.
How does a nomination get made and unmade within 24 hours?
Revoking a nomination is not a formal legal concept in itself. The presidency did not announce the dismissal or removal of Waldemar de Sousa, opting instead to inform that the instruments through which the first two appointments had been made were revoked.
The legal framework enables such a change to be executed swiftly. The Constitution and the Organic Law of the Banco de Moçambique vest directly in the President the authority to appoint, dismiss, and remove the Governor and Deputy Governor of the central bank. Decisions are taken through presidential decrees and do not require prior parliamentary confirmation.
The legal mechanism explains how it was possible to replace the appointments within hours. It does not, however, explain why it was necessary to do so.
The presidency confined itself to invoking ‘supervening circumstances’ — a phrase suggesting that information or events of sufficient weight emerged or became known after the initial decision, rendering the first choice untenable. The communiqué did not disclose the nature of those circumstances, when they were identified, or whether they related exclusively to Waldemar de Sousa.
The sequence raises an institutional question: how was a name announced to lead one of the most sensitive public institutions in the country, only for that choice to be reversed before the inauguration even took place? And what information emerged between Monday evening and Tuesday afternoon that had not been available during the preparation of the first appointment?
Nuvunga’s public appeal preceded the revocation
The reversal came on the same day that activist Adriano Nuvunga publicly called on the President to reconsider the appointment of Waldemar de Sousa and to clarify his legal standing.
The appeal referenced previously published reports concerning a separate legal process related to the ‘Hidden Debts’ case, and questioned whether integrity checks had been conducted prior to the nomination.
In 2020, it was reported that Waldemar de Sousa, a former BdM administrator, had been charged with abuse of office alongside former Governor Ernesto Gove and former administrator Joana Matsombe. The same reports indicated that the charges related to administrative authorisations and that no evidence of illicit enrichment had been found.
There is, to date, no official confirmation that the revocation resulted from Nuvunga’s appeal or from that legal process. The temporal proximity is relevant to the chronology but does not establish a causal relationship. The presidency offered no explanation beyond the reference to ‘supervening circumstances’.
Who is Felisberto Navalha?
Felisberto Dinis Navalha is well acquainted with the institution he will now lead. He served at the Banco de Moçambique from 1996 to 2022, during which time he held a range of technical and managerial positions.
Between 2011 and 2017, he headed the central bank’s Department of Economic Studies, and subsequently served on its Board of Directors. He holds a degree in Economics from Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM), a master’s degree in Development Economics, and is currently completing a doctorate in Economics.
Navalha also lectures at the Faculty of Economics at UEM, where he teaches Introduction to Macroeconomics, Macroeconomics I, and Monetary Economics.
Benedita Maria Guimino was already a member of the Banco de Moçambique’s Board of Directors, where she held responsibility for the financial stability portfolio. As Deputy Governor, she will stand in for the Governor in his absence or when he is otherwise indisposed, and will exercise such powers as are assigned or delegated to her under the law.
The Banco de Moçambique plays a central role in the country’s monetary and financial stability, including the direction and oversight of monetary and exchange rate policy, the management of foreign exchange reserves, and the supervision of financial institutions.
Felisberto Navalha is to be inaugurated on Wednesday, 2 September, at 07h30, in a ceremony presided over by the President at his offices. The date of Benedita Guimino’s inauguration will be announced separately.
The new leadership closes a decade-long chapter under Rogério Zandamela at the helm of the central bank, but begins under the weight of an unusual transition: three names, two rounds of decrees, and a postponed inauguration within the space of a single day. For an institution whose authority depends in part on credibility, predictability, and market confidence, the manner of the transition is not a footnote — it is itself an institutional signal.
Source: Diário Económico
Original article: https://www.diarioeconomico.co.mz/2026/09/01/economia/banca/banco-de-mocambique-pr-revoga-nomeacao-de-waldemar-de-sousa-em-menos-de-24-horas-e-escolhe-felisberto-navalha/
