The Civil Society Movement for the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Mozambique argues for greater public participation in the public consultation process conducted by the Bank of Mozambique on the creation of the reserve.

According to the coordinator of that civil society consortium, Fátima Mimbire, the public consultation process was almost opaque and excluding, because the communities in rural areas did not have the opportunity to participate in the debates and, in several cases, the meetings held in the cities were attended only by local government representatives.

For this consortium, which was reacting to the publication by the central bank, this week, of the "Summary of the public consultation of the proposed sovereign fund model for Mozambique", there was a lack of interest by the central bank in not involving the rural communities in this process.

"With the resources that the Bank of Mozambique has at its disposal, the failure to hold debates in the most remote areas of the cities can only be justified by lack of interest," considers Fátima Mimbire.

Moreover, in Mimbire's view, the three months set aside by the central bank for public consultation were insufficient to bring concrete results, considering the relevance of this project for the country's development.

"Six months could have been the minimum, considering the complexity of the technical proposal of the sovereign fund put up for debate," argued Fátima Mimbire.

The Bank of Mozambique last week released the results of public consultation for the creation of the Sovereign Fund. In the document, the central bank states that it accommodated the proposal for an independent audit of the future sovereign fund and the integration of independent figures in the entity that will manage the account, having also, heard 200 entities and individuals, including experts, during discussions held between October and December 2020.