Mozambique: Japan to donate US$23.7 mln for Niassa water supply project, others

Japan on Friday announced donations to Mozambique totalling $23.7 million (€19.5 million) for three separate projects.

The largest is for the construction of water supply facilities in Niassa province, in Mozambique’s far north, budgeted at $20 million.

The other two projects, worth about $1.8 million each, are for the supply of boats and other equipment for the coastal, lake and river police and the closure of Maputo’s Hulene rubbish dump, whose disorderly growth led to a landslide in February 2018 that killed 16 people.

The signing of the three agreements took place on Friday, the second day of a two-day visit to Mozambique by Japan’s foreign minister, Toshimitsu Motegi.

On Friday he had a meeting with his Mozambican counterpart, Verónica Macamo, having had an audience with the president, Filipe Nyusi, on Thursday. After that meeting, he he announced plans for an investment mission to Mozambique in February 2021.

Motegi also called for efforts to improve security in Cabo Delgado, the province where a huge natural gas project is taking shape and where an insurgency by armed rebels has been underway for three years. Nyusi responded affirmatively to that call.

The Japanese minister and the head of state also agreed to work together on maritime legislation relating to the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) initiative developed under Japanese and American cooperation.

The meetings also served to lay the foundations for Mozambique’s participation in the next Tokyo Conference on African Development (TICAD), which is scheduled for 2022.