Maputo — Hidroeléctrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), the public company that operates the Cahora Bassa dam on the Zambezi river in the western Mozambican province of Tete, contributed 3.6 billion meticais (51.1 million dollars at the current exchange rate) in dividends to the state coffers from January to June 2023.

According to figures included in the Balance of the Economic and Social Plan and State Budget for the first half of 2023 - the government's half-yearly report - of the six companies classified the contribution from HCB is by far the most significant, accounting for 64.6 percent of the total dividends paid in the period under review.

After HCB, comes the Ports and Rail Company, CFM, with an amount of around 1.2 billion Meticais, which is 21 percent of the total dividends paid by companies owned in whole or in part by the Mozambican state.

"In third place is Banco Internacional de Moçambique (BIM), whose contribution of 636.9 million Meticais represents 11.3 per cent of the total dividends. The Mozambican Hydrocarbon Company (CMH) contributed 178.6 million Meticais, which represents 3.2 per cent of the total dividends paid to the state in the first half of the year', reads the document.

The other two companies on the list, the insurance company, EMOSE, and the aluminium smelter Mozal, did not pay dividends in the first half of the year, "but in the same period last year, they channelled 87.8 million and 200.7 million Meticais, respectively, in dividends.'

In the first half of the year, total dividend revenue was 5.6 billion Meticais, an increase of 153.6 per cent compared to the first half of 2022, when the amount was 2.2 billion Meticais in dividends paid by companies owned or participated in by the state.

Dividends represent 3.8 per cent of the total revenue collected by the government in the first half of 2023, amounting to 146.7 billion Meticais compared to 133.8 billion Meticais in the same period of 2022.