Focus must fall on export beneficiation

In response to the riots in Maputo earlier this
year, the Mozambican government is likely to
focus more on adding value to exports of raw
materials and produce from the country in order
to create jobs, predicts Ahmad Chotia, managing
director of Manica Freight Services Mozambique.
“With a volatile population, the Mozambican
government has to take drastic measures and
change its policies,” he says.
He expects the government to incentivise
investment in local manufacturing, with the focus
on the Mozambican and South African markets.
A first step would be for Mozambique to stop
“subsidising transit cargo”.
It is “wrong,” he says, for the majority of freight
handled at the Mozambican ports to pass through
without any value being added or jobs created –
apart from the few in the freight industry.
He is also critical of the “briefcase companies”
currently exporting goods into Mozambique and
neighbouring countries.
“They have no social obligations, and if
something goes wrong, they will walk out,” he
says.
Chotia says investment in the ports is creating
opportunities for Mozambican exports to the rest
of the world as well.
“We need to focus on the internal province.
There is a very rich farming area,” he says.
Manica Freight Services is a Mozambicanowned
company with a staff of some 500, and
represents over 40 shipping lines.