Sector Trends Driving Change

Sector Trends

There’s little denying that the single biggest driver of change in freight, transport and shipping in Mozambique is the improvement of infrastructure.

From the dredging works at Maputo Bay in 2017 to the expansion of the Maputo Container Terminal (including installation of automated systems) and even the arrival of a series of multinational logistics firms raising the standard. But perhaps the biggest change of all has been the shift in mindset.

An example of this could be seen a little over a decade ago, when Dr Sandra Sequeira, a professor of development economics at the London School of Economics conducted research into the effect of corruption at two competing ports in southern African - Maputo and Durban. Her research showed that the possibility of paying a bribe was significantly higher in Maputo, and that the size of the bribe was approximately three times higher.

Although the results were shocking, the Mozambican government took initiative and moved quickly to act on them. Dr. Sequeira provided them with a list of recommendations, which ultimately led to Maputo adopting a set of anti-corruption policies and the development and implementation of an online system called ‘the Single Electronic Window’ (SEW). 9 months after its installation, couriers by land, sea and air were all reporting dramatically improved clearance times.

But improved clearance time is wasted if there aren’t world class storage facilities. Kuwaiti logistics developer, Agility, has committed to developing a chain of international standard logistics parks across Mozambique, in an effort to appeal to international companies considering the

“Agility, has committed to developing a chain of international standard logistics parks across Mozambique”

country as a destination. Warehousing will also be needed if Mozambique is to develop its export industry, allowing suppliers to drop cargo near transport hubs.

All of these have contributed to Mozambique’s growing trade. 2019 marked another new record of 21 million tonnes of cargo at the port of Maputo - beating the 2018 record of 19.5 million tonnes and the expectation is that 2020 will be similar, albeit with the impact of COVID-19 having to be taken into account. Where freight, transport and shipping are concerned, everything is trending upward for Mozambique.

27http://country.eiu.com/article.aspx?articleid=467607030&Country=Mozambique&topic=Economy&subtopic=Forecast&subsubtopic=Econo mic+growth&u=1&pid=404105824&oid=314105815 28https://clubofmozambique.com/news/maputo-port-records-eight-per-cent-increase-in-cargo-152147/ 29https://www.lse.ac.uk/Research/research-impact-case-studies/investigating-tackling-corruption-african-ports 30https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r42MZ825uHlzck_pqniW2FJ3hcgaEzTWR_ro8qsYhrA/edit?pli=1 31https://www.logupdateafrica.com/agility-to-build-warehouse-parks-in-mozambique-logistics