The Ministry of Economy and Finance has launched an international public tender to recruit specialists to fill the staff of the recently announced Mutual Guarantees Fund, an executive source has learned.

These are a fund manager, a credit and operational risk manager and a compliance manager.

The World Bank announced last week that its board of directors had approved a package of 300 million dollars for Mozambique to finance the Loan Guarantee Fund to guarantee access to credit for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, including women entrepreneurs.

There is a strong expectation from the private sector and we heard from a source in the Ministry of Economy and Finance in Whashington on Sunday that two of the country's largest banks are already being screened by the World Bank to qualify for the Loan Guarantee Fund.

The interest rates that will be applied when the fund is implemented are not yet known, but they will be lower than those normally applied by commercial banks.

Access to credit in Mozambique is a constraint for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, limiting their growth and expansion, and this measure seeks to respond to that challenge.

This fund will allow commercial banks to make financial resources available to strengthen investment capacity at "more accessible" interest rates for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises operating in the agriculture, fish farming, agricultural marketing and processing, tourism and housing sectors.

In August 2022, the President of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi, launched 20 measures to stimulate the economy, as part of the Package of Economic Acceleration Measures (PAE), which includes a line of financing for SMEs. (Text News online)