Mozambique has cleared its $701 million debt to the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to Standard Bank, the largest bank
in Africa.
- Mozambique
has cleared its $701 million debt to the IMF, according to Standard Bank. - The
repayment led to the cancellation of an IMF mission scheduled for August,
though no official statement was made. - Mozambique’s
foreign exchange reserves are expected to drop from $4.15 billion to $3.5
billion after the repayment. - Other
African countries, like Nigeria and Namibia, have also recently repaid or
reduced their IMF debts.
This reimbursement entails that the country has cancelled an
IMF mission intended for later this year, in August, despite no official
details on the debt repayment from either Mozambique or the IMF.
In a research note dated March 27, Fáusio Mussá, chief
economist at Standard Bank in Mozambique, disclosed that Mozambique had settled
its debt to the global lender, citing information from the IMF itself.
This information seems consistent, as Mozambique’s
outstanding debt on the IMF’s official portal reads zero.
As reported by Bloomberg, Mozambique’s debt prior to the
recent settlement was a cause for concern.
The IMF in February had issued a warning to the Southern
African country that its debt was in distress and on an unsustainable path.
In March, another prominent global lender, the World Bank,
warned that the country’s current economic trajectory put $50 billion in gas
projects at risk.
Mozambique’s foreign exchange reserves, which stood at
approximately $4.15 billion towards the end of January, were nearly at an
all-time high.
Estimates from Standard Bank show that these reserves are
expected to decrease to $3.5 billion following the country’s debt repayment to
the IMF, despite the ongoing accumulation of arrears with other bilateral and
multilateral creditors.
Last year, a couple of African countries, including Nigeria
and Namibia, cleared or at least reduced their outstanding debts to the IMF.
In May 2025, Nigeria repaid a $3.4 billion emergency loan
borrowed from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Rapid Financing
Instrument (RFI), which was accessed in 2020 to cushion the economic impacts of
the COVID-19 pandemic.
The IMF Resident Representative in Nigeria, Dr. Christian
Ebeke, highlighted the fulfillment requirements for loan accounting under the
Fund’s Rapid Financing Instrument.
For Namibia, the Southern African country, in October of the
same year, committed to a significant reduction of its debt obligations,
amounting to $750 million.
Its IMF debt went from $71,662,500 in September to
$47,775,000 the next month. The country’s current debt is $19,080,000, making
it the second lowest in Africa currently.
The IMF data portal has 45 African countries listed with
some form of outstanding debt; countries not on the list include Nigeria,
Libya, Eritrea, Botswana, Algeria, Mauritius, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and
Eswatini. – Business Insider Africa