Mozambique, through the public and private sectors, created more than 1.3 million jobs during the last five years, a figure that represents close to 50 per cent of the Executive’s projections for the end of 2024.
The figures were shared today in Maputo by the Mozambican President, Filipe Nyusi, at the opening of the 2nd National Conference on Social Dialogue and Collective Negotiations, an event attended by more than 500 participants, including members of the government, workers, employers and other guests.
The “Employment Promotion Policy Action Plan”, officially launched in 2021, envisaged creating around three million jobs in the country, most of them in the areas of agriculture and industry, key sectors for generating employment.
“The private sector and the public sector as a whole generated 1,364,204.49 jobs, including permanent, temporary and seasonal jobs,” said Nyusi, figures that he considers encouraging given the constraints of the last five years.
According to the Head of State, the Executive could have done much more, but the national and international economic climate has conditioned companies’ activities and their ability to cover the costs of remuneration, as they have faced cash flow problems, a factor that has forced the closure of some institutions.
“Employers have experienced problems in recent years. Other companies have had to close down their entire operations. At that time, the economy also slackened. These were challenges that we experienced for a while,” emphasised Nyusi.
He said that all the measures taken by the Executive in the face of successive inflationary crises since 2020 were aimed at stabilising the unfavourable situation and some painful short-term measures that ended up causing the economy to contract.
“We had to take measures to stabilise our currency and inflation,” he said.
For the Mozambican statesman, these restrictive measures in the economy have allowed interest rates to fall this year.
Regarding investment in the country, Nyusi said that it could be leveraged by the approval of the Loan Guarantee Fund worth 4.4 billion meticals (around 68.9 million dollars), which should, in principle, facilitate access to bank credit for small and medium-sized companies.
“This is how we are betting on the growth of domestic production by investing in various infrastructures and improving the business environment, attracting more productive and job-creating investments. This is evidenced by the 40 per cent increase in investment intentions between 2022 and 2023, totalling 2.2 billion US dollars,” he said.
Regarding national production, Nyusi said that official statistics point to growth in the order of 5.1 per cent in the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) last year. For this year, projections point to growth of around 5.4 per cent, which will lead to the creation of more jobs for young people.
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