Maputo — Five new factories, which began operation in the last five years (2020 to 2024), in Maputo, Nampula and Niassa provinces, have contributed to the creation of 22,960 jobs.

According to the Minister of Industry and Trade, Silvino Moreno, who was speaking, on Wednesday, in Maputo, at the opening of the Coordinating Council of his Ministry, taking place under the slogan: "Creating bases for sustainable integrated development', the factories in question produce cement, cooking oil, pasta, beer and artificial hair.

"The new cement factory based in Maputo province has the installed capacity to produce two million tonnes a year and five thousand tonnes of clinker a day, thus helping to reduce imports. The Cuamba vegetable oil production plant, in Niassa province, has a capacity to extract 25 tonnes of crude oil and refine 10 tonnes, thus also reducing imports', he said.

In the current five-year period, he said, the industrial sector has also made progress in pasta production, with an increase in installed capacity to 102 tonnes per day, for national consumption and export.

"So far the factory is exporting pasta to neighboring countries, including Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa. Regarding the brewery, the plant has the capacity to produce 240 million liters a year. The artificial hair industry produces 246,600 units a year', said Moreno. He noted that 75 per cent of the workforce in the artificial hair factory consists of women.

According to the minister, during the same five year period, 72.3 million tonnes of various agricultural products were marketed, which was a growth of 2.3 per cent in 2020, 4.5 per cent in 2021 and 14.3 per cent in 2022 and 2023.

"To respond to the increase in agricultural production and for better preservation of products, warehouses and silos with a total capacity of 22,150 tonnes were built or rehabilitated', he said.