Mozambique: Milange Reduces Dependence On Malawi

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Sunday expressed satisfaction at the increased capacity of operators in Milange district, in the central province of Zambezia, to process and market locally produced maize.

Milange is on the border with Malawi, and traditionally Milange farmers have milled their maize in Malawi, as well as selling any surplus maize there.

This dependence has now been reduced with the appearance of flour mills in Milange. Partly as a result the circulation of the Malawian currency, the kwacha, in Milange has declined, with residents increasingly opting for Mozambique's own currency, the metical. This success is attributed to wise investment of the Local Initiative Development Fund, consisting of at least seven million meticais (about 280,000 US dollars) a year allocated to each district from the state budget.

Speaking at an extraordinary meeting of the Milange District Consultative Council, Guebuza said "This means that you have known how to use the resources available as they ought to be used. If you continue like this, we shall feel that dependency on neighbouring countries will decrease still further".

Nonetheless, Guebuza admitted that it is still a major struggle to improve the use of the Local Initiatives Fund, since many of the beneficiaries of the fund face enormous difficulty in managing the money. The idea is that the money is not a grant but a loan, made to local entrepreneurs who can boost food production and provide jobs.

Guebuza's ends his visit to Zambezia today, and will immediately head north to begin a tour of Niassa province.