6 October 2008
Macia — Mozambican President Armando Guebuza told reporters on Saturday that the country's rural districts are responding to the challenge to transform themselves into poles of development.
Speaking at a press conference in the town of Macia, at the end of a working visit to the southern province of Gaza, he said that not only are the districts acquiring greater capacity in terms of infrastructure and logistics, but the district consultative councils have ensured greater popular participation and intervention in planning and managing social and economic projects.
While in Gaza, Guebuza visited the districts of Mabalane, Massingir, Guija, Chokwe and Bilene-Macia. This was the last stage in his annual tour of the country, checking on implementation of the government's five year programme, and on the use of the Local Initiative Investment Fund. This is the seven billion meticais (about 290,000 US dollars) transferred from the state budget to each of the 128 districts every year, for projects intended to increase food production and create jobs.
"People in the districts tell us they want water, electricity, roads", Guebuza said. "It's the district speaking and that's a great and deep transformation".
He recognised that there are problems with the Local Initiative Investment Fund, but thought they are of less significance than the problems that the fund is solving.
"Of course there are problems, but the seven million meticais produce problems because they are solving problems", argued Guebuza. He believed these were "minor problems", and "crises of growth".
The problem most often mentioned is that, although the money is not a grant but a loan, most of the beneficiaries are not yet repaying. This could ruin the chances of making this a revolving fund, in which money is recycled.
Guebuza argued that the problem is more statistical than real, since the beneficiaries have signed contracts that establish the terms and deadlines for repayment. These in turn depend on the type of crop the beneficiaries are growing, and when it is harvested (most of the projects financed are agricultural).
Guebuza criticised the district governments. For most of their reports did not clearly state how much money had been lent and what the repayment terms are. "Naturally, if we don't manage to solve this problem, we will have difficulties in recovering all our investment", he said. "It's a challenge. We have to plan and record better, so that we can know whether we are facing a deficit, or just a situation in which the time has not yet come to repay the money".
The government recognises that people have difficulties in repaying, he added, and are unable to present guarantees for the reimbursement of the money. But what the government was fundamentally aiming at was to introduce the monetary economy into the countryside.
"We've already begun to demand. We're putting pressure on people to pay up", he insisted.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
