Mozambican telecoms company Tmcel will spend US$23 million on telecommunications equipment under a contract signed on Tuesday in Beijing with Chinese group Huawei, Mozambican state news agency AIM reported.
The amount to be invested by Tmcel, a Mozambican company set up in 2018 from the merger of public companies Telecomunicações de Moçambique (TDM) and Moçambique Celular (MCel), will come from the company’s own resources.
AIM reported that this amount will be the result of the sale of assets “which are not the main focus of Tmcel’s business,” and added that under the terms of the contract, this project will start as soon as possible.
Mozambique’s Minister of Transport and Communications, Carlos Mesquita, said that an investment project, also in the telecommunications sector, with an estimated value of US$130 million, is due to be launched this year.
Mesquita said that this project, whose contribution from China he did not disclose, is focused on installing a fibre optic network in Mozambique, linking the north and south of the country, as well as the hubs that connect to neighbouring countries.
“The project is well underway, it has already been approved by the Chinese government, and the practical aspects of the disbursements are now going ahead,” said Mesquita, who is a member of the presidential delegation to the 2nd International “Belt and Road” Forum.
President Filipe Nyusi began an official visit to China on Monday, which is scheduled to end on Saturday, during which he will meet with his counterpart Xi Jinping and take part in the forum.
This edition of the Forum is focused on the theme “Belt and Road Cooperation: Shaping the Brighter Shared Future,” with 124 countries and 29 international organisations already signing cooperation agreements with China under this initiative.
