"Mozambique Business and Investment Roundtable" on the sidelines of the 2022 U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit

On Monday December 12, 2022 the Corporate Council on Africa hosted the “Mozambique Business and Investment Roundtable” on the sidelines of the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, DC. The round table, co-hosted by Winston & Strawn, invited H.E. President Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique and key ministers for a roundtable to engage with close to 40 U.S. and Africa private sector stakeholders on trade and investment opportunities in Mozambique.Florie Liser, the President and CEO of CCA welcomed and thanked His Excellency and members of his cabinet for their presence. She reiterated the CCA’s strong bond with the country especially as the CCA hosted its US-Africa summit in 2019 in Mozambique. H.E. President Nyusi began by sharing his economic vision for Mozambique and how the U.S. private sector can support and advance this vision. H.E. President Nyusi used examples to bring into perspective trade flows between Mozambique and the U.S. For instance, he emphasized the importance of companies like Anadarko Petroleum Corporation in US-Mozambique trade. His Excellency described the energy sector as blooming especially as the country aims to reach a net zero emission by 2050. He then further highlighted the country’s great investment environment, in the context of reforms like the digitalization of the economy, and removal of bureaucracy. The president continued by signaling Mozambique’s stability, peace, and security with the war’s end in 1992 and the multi-party elections held since then. In the same vein, H.E. President Nyusi mentioned that a direct loan of 5B has been approved by Eximbank for the development of an LNG project in Mozambique. H.E. Nyusi thanked the U.S. government for approving the second compact of the Millennium Corporation Challenge and thanked the CCA for its work mobilizing funding for Mozambique.Following this, multilateral organizations and members of the CCA presented their missions and possible partnership opportunities with the Mozambican government. Alain Ebobissé, CEO of Africa50 affirmed Mozambique is on the way to becoming one of their shareholders. The Africa Finance Corporation stated its will for Mozambique to become the firm’s 39th member country; they are advocating for primary products to be processed and manufactured on the continent. Elif Aral, Access and Accord Commercial Lead at Pfizer, spoke of her division’s mission and their desire to partner with the government to supply medical products and assist in the patient care chain.The overall purpose of the session was to give an overview of the opportunities in Mozambique and for members to inquire and express their interest in exploring opportunities of partnership with Mozambique or share the projects they are leading in Mozambique.At the end of the event was a Q&A session with questions pertaining to the government’s plans to sustain the progress on security issues, the presidency’s vision on helping provide gas to Africa as a whole, as well as to the Mozambican agro-processing zone, answers were given by H.E. Silvino Moreno, Minister of Industry and Commerce, and H.E. President Nyusi.