Good afternoon. For years, banking has occupied a privileged position in Mozambique’s economy. Political crises, economic slowdowns and periods of instability have come and gone, yet the country’s major lenders have generally remained profitable. Portuguese and South African shareholders have often viewed their Mozambican operations as dependable contributors to earnings, while domestic banks benefited from operating in a relatively protected and profitable market.
Recent results suggest that remains true — but perhaps less uniformly than before. Moza Banco reported losses of MZN3.9bn ($61m) last year after writing off impairments and credit exposures as part of what it described as a balance-sheet clean-up. Perhaps more significantly, FNB Mozambique was also in the red, recording losses of MZN859m ($13.4m), which it attributed largely to impairments on sovereign exposures — that is, lending to the Mozambican government.
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Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Negócios reported this week that Mozambique continues to make a meaningful contribution to the profits of Portugal’s largest banking groups. BCI contributed €24m to the results of Caixa Geral de Depósitos in the first quarter, while Millennium BIM’s contribution to BCP rose by more than two-thirds to €5.5m. Mozambique, the newspaper suggested, helped offset weaker performances elsewhere in those groups’ international operations.
