It was during a meeting last Friday with journalists that the Minister of Economy and Finance, Max Tonela, assured that the proposal to create a sovereign wealth fund for Mozambique based on revenues from natural resources should be approved by the end of the year.

The process "is proceeding at an accelerated pace and the prospect is that the government will be able to consider the proposal" and send it to parliament for approval "even before the reopening" of the second plenary session of 2022 in October.

Thus, the minister assures, the fund may be "approved during the course of this year". It is known that Mozambique is on the verge of making this year the first export of natural gas from the Rovuma reserves, classified among the largest in the world.

It should be noted that the Bank of Mozambique has defended as an ideal scenario that the sovereign fund be established before the country starts receiving revenues from the Rovuma, in time to create technical and institutional capacity in the management of natural resources.

The mechanism will also rely on revenues from reserves of coal, heavy sands, titanium and other high value ores exported by Mozambique.

The creation proposal drafted by the central bank and released in 2020 envisions the following objectives, "accumulate savings" and "contribute to the country's fiscal stabilization," with transparency and accountability rules.

The fund will go through a maturation period until the twentieth year.

Until then, it must receive half of the gross revenues from the exploitation of non-renewable natural resources (the other half goes to the State Budget, OE) and only release them in the event of an "extreme shock" to the economy or calamities.

The Bank of Mozambique's proposal expects the country to raise $96 billion over the life of the Rovuma gas, almost seven times the current annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but major exploration projects are still stalled due to insecurity in Cabo Delgado province.