Half of Mozambican building contractors are on the verge of declaring bankruptcy as a result of the economic crisis in the country, Manuel Pereira, president of the Mozambican Federation of Building Contractors, said yesterday.

“We have almost 3,000 contractors nationwide and 50 percent of them are at a stand-still: they have no work, they have no money, and most of their workers will end up unemployed,” he said, quoted by Radio Mozambique.

Pereira was speaking yesterday at meeting in preparation for an encounter with the President Nyusi next week.

“There are no tenders, there is no work, there is no money – and those who have to solve this problem are not the contractors,” Pereira said. It is “the duty of the Mozambican state to help contractors on the verge of bankruptcy, because it was the government who gave the permits”.

The Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA) announced in March it is preparing a study of bankruptcies in the country to lay the groundwork for the creation, with the authorities, of a support framework for the recovery of the private sector.

CTA leader Agostinho Vuma warned the government and the central bank about the “suffocation” and “mass bankruptcy” of Mozambican companies during the 15th Private Sector Annual Conference in Maputo, but without giving numbers.

Source: Lusa