The President of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi, today inaugurated the road linking Mozambique and Tanzania in the town of Ninga, Mueda district, Cabo Delgado province.

It's actually the completion of the first phase of the Mueda-Negomano road, on the Negomano-Rome section, which is 70 kilometers long. The African Development Bank (AfDB) financed 70 million dollars for the construction of the road infrastructure.

In December 2016, the AfDB announced the approval of more than 80 million dollars for the construction of a road between Mozambique and Tanzania. Click here here to find out more....

On this occasion today, Filipe Nyusi called for safe transit on the road in order to avoid the loss of human life and the conservation of biodiversity, at the same time as the population uses it to increase levels of development.

"We don't want this road to be the reason for the increase in the number of traffic accidents in the country, because we didn't come here to Ninga to hand over a road of death, on the contrary, of life," said the PR in an appeal for the prudent use of the road.

"Today, National Road Number 1, our backbone, has a length of around 2,620 kilometers which, in the current classification, starts at Ponta D'Ouro (Maputo) and ends at Pemba (Cabo Delgado). The government's vision is to reclassify this important road and make it from Ponta D'Ouro to Negomano, adding the Sunate-Macomia-Auássi, Auássi-Mueda and Mueda-Negomano stretches, so 458 kilometers, making it 3,078 kilometers long," said the PR.

"The AfDB's budget was approved in 2017, and the bank firmly believes that the section will contribute to the development of Cabo Delgado and boost trade between Mozambique and Tanzania through the Mtwara corridor," said the institution's representative at the event.

The second phase of the road's construction was scheduled to begin in 2019, on the Rome-Mueda section, including the construction of a one-stop border post.

Meanwhile, in 2019 the ADB approved additional funding of around 30 million dollars for the 35-kilometer link between Roma and Nabungale (Cabo Delgado). Last year, the bank approved another financing of approximately 70 million dollars for 64.4 kilometers of road between Nabungale and Mueda, "which completes the missing link in the Mtwara corridor and will allow it to be connected to the north-south transport corridors, Nacala and Beira."

The AfDB believes that the inauguration of the road is a major opportunity for greater cooperation and economic integration between Mozambique and Tanzania and the entire SADC.