Public sector revenues grow, but debt also rises in Mozambique

The debt of Mozambique's State-Owned Enterprise Sector (SEE) registered further growth in the third quarter of 2025, reaching 39,967 million meticais, according to Ministry of Finance figures cited by the Lusa agency on Monday, 8 January 2026.

The increase represents a rise of 1% on the previous quarter, equivalent to an additional 625.4 million meticais, according to the latest report on the evolution of public debt in the country.

This increase is due essentially to the acquisition of new financing by Emose, the state insurer, which took out a loan of about 7.5 million dollars. The document also highlights the growth in the debt of other major public companies, namely Petromoc, LAM (Mozambique Airlines) and the Mozambique Ports and Railways (CFM).

CFM, in fact, accounted for 32.97% of the SEE's domestic debt at the end of September, followed by LAM with 27.22% and Petromoc with 6.4%.

It should be recalled that the Mozambican Government indicated, in 2025, that CFM and Emose, together with Hidroeléctrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), would assume shareholder control of LAM, as part of a strategy to restructure the sector.

SEE debt had already risen by 7.15% in the second quarter of 2025, standing then at 39,582 million meticais.

Mozambique currently has 11 public companies, seven exclusively state-owned companies and nine minority holdings in the process of liquidation, according to Government information.

Despite the growth in debt, the SEE performed positively on revenue: it collected 12.3 billion meticais in 2024, 35% more than in 2023, when 9.1 billion had been recorded.

During the discussion of the 2024 State General Account in parliament, Prime Minister Maria Benvinda Levi assured that the Executive is applying concrete measures to reduce the fiscal risks of the sector, committing to a restructuring focused on financial and operational aspects, as well as on assessing the performance of companies on the basis of economic value added.

As part of this effort, the Government is implementing the MERIDIAN IT system, to improve the quality and transparency of public debt management.

“We further reaffirm that we will continue to develop actions to bring public debt to sustainable levels, ensuring a balance between sources of financing and strengthened fiscal discipline”, the Prime Minister assured.