Japan pledges huge loans to Mozambique

The Japanese government has pledged to disburse, over the next five years, a financial package to the value of 70 billion yen (about 672 million US dollars) for Mozambican development programmes in areas such as infrastructures and agricultural growth. The aid was announced in Maputo on 19 January after talks between Mozambican President Armando Guebuza and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Much of the funding, which takes the form of loans, will go towards improving the state of roads, in the north of the country, particularly in the northern development corridor, which runs from the port of Nacala through Nampula and Niassa provinces to the Malawian border. Another slice of the Japanese aid will go towards the ProSavana project, a triangular cooperation agreement between Mozambique, Japan and Brazil intended to improve agricultural production in Nampula, Niassa and Zambezia.

A memorandum of understanding was also signed for interchanges between the Mozambican Agricultural Research Institute (IIAM), and the Japan International Research Centre for Agricultural Sciences.

Original article: http://allafrica.com/stories/201401270528.html