Good afternoon. The World Bank is providing $35m to help Mozambique replenish medicines and medical supplies, and is financing the $250m Bus Rapid Transit system under construction in Greater Maputo. Its money also supports water systems, drainage, sanitation, agriculture and public administration. Across much of the country, services associated with ordinary government depend on an international financial institution.
Mozambique’s 2027 Fiscal Risks Report explains why. Public-sector salaries and debt service could absorb 96% of tax revenue next year. For every 100 meticais collected, only four would remain for goods and services, domestic public investment, transfers and emergencies.
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That projection describes a state with almost no room to govern using its own revenue. Teachers, nurses and other public servants must be paid, while failure to service debt would deepen the financing crisis. Medicines, roads, water, transport and disaster response are left competing for what remains or waiting for external support.
The problem is the cost and rigidity of the payroll, rather than an unusually large public service. Mozambique employs around 357,000 public servants, a number the World Bank considers relatively modest by regional standards. Yet salaries absorb an exceptionally large share of revenue. Debt accumulated without producing sufficient returns further restricts spending, while weak procurement, inefficient public companies and corruption reduce the value obtained from scarce resources.
