Local entrepreneurs in Cabo Delgado province, northern Mozambique, claim that they are being excluded from the reconstruction of infrastructure in districts ravaged by terrorism since 2017.

According to Mamudo Irache, president of the Cabo Delgado Business Council, quoted by the newspaper Notícias and citing AIM, the complaint comes at a time when many businesspeople in this province were hoping for economic recovery, after having suffered heavy losses during the terrorist attacks.

"They informed us about the launch of the public tenders and we have participated. But, strangely, no company from Cabo Delgado has won and, even worse, they don't even tell us why. Even for the rehabilitation of the toilets they are hiring companies from outside Cabo Delgado," said Irache.

According to Cabo Delgado's entrepreneurs, they are partly beginning to believe that the agencies involved have an agenda to harm them.

"They shouldn't talk about a lack of capacity, especially in construction," he said. "It doesn't make sense, because our engineering companies have always played a leading role in major state works in the province."

Do Irache believes that the requirements demanded by international agencies are prohibitive, especially for companies that are recovering from the crisis.

"There was a need to certify the companies and we carried out work that allowed eleven local companies to take part in the tenders, but none of these companies ever won the tender," he explained.