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Herald Reporter

Skilled English-speaking Zimbabweans are set to benefit from the multi-billion dollar liquefied-natural-gas project in Mozambique.

The US Export-Import Bank approved the broadened scope of a US$4,7 billion loan last Thursday to back American suppliers to a liquefied-natural-gas development, a project seen by analysts as a game-changer on the continent in general, and the SADC region in particular.

The project reportedly attracted funding interest from many financiers including China and Russia.

Global investment analyst, Ambassador Chris Mutsvangwa told The Herald yesterday that the investment marks a “new dawn for Mozambique and its Sadc neighbours”.

“Well done to President (Filipe) Nyusi to land a global top tier investment project (and it is) more befitting that it is USA, the global apex economy underwriting the massive gas project,” said Ambassador Mutsvangwa.

He praised US president Donald Trump for undoing the 1970s Kissingerite race-tinted foreign policy approach. The policy has for decades, hobbled the business juices of the world’s top entrepreneurs that are America’s boast.

Ambassador Mutsvangwa said the latest decision by the Trump administration opens the doors of global entrepreneurship for the sub region.

Ambassador Mutsvangwa said the curtain was coming down on “doomsayers and local politics of relentless negative carping”.

“Africa’s hour beckons. This is a big deal also for Zimbabwe in terms of English speaking employment expertise,” he said.

The coming on stream of the projects sees Mozambique joining Russia, Qatar and Australia, as top tier liquefied natural gas producers. The coming in of the Americans into Mozambique in a big way, will result in fierce competition from Chinese investors, who may have taken consistent head start, although American businessmen are kicking the investment door wide open.

A slew of other investors from diverse nations such as Japan, India, Indonesia, Russia, Turkey are now expected not only in Mozambique, but the rest of the SADC region.

Both China and the US have announced huge funding opportunities for Africa but many leaders are open to the Chinese package which has less conditions tied to it.

According to https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/, the Exim Bank helps foreign companies buy American products when private lenders won’t provide financing, with one of its goals being to “advance the US’s comparative leadership in the world with respect to China.”

The appointment of three Trump-appointed nominees to the bank’s board in May 2019 helped provide the quorum needed to restore its ability to approve deals worth more than $10 million for the first time since 2015, smoothing the way for its participation in the Mozambique project.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp., based in Woodlands, Texas, initially led the Mozambican project that was sold on to French oil major Total SA. US companies including McDermott International Inc. have been awarded contracts worth billions of dollars to help build the facility — work that Exim Bank said could support 16 700 American jobs.

China has a well-established presence in Mozambique. It funded and built Africa’s longest suspension bridge in the capital, Maputo, and has invested in a massive hotel and conference centre there. Russia has made more recent inroads, winning some oil and gas licenses and reportedly supplying mercenaries to beat back insurgents operating in the vicinity of the gas project. Total’s project is the smaller of two developments that aim to tap Mozambique’s massive natural gas reserves. The other is now led by Exxon Mobil Corp. Its notable partners include China National Petroleum Corp., which could complicate any bid to secure Exim bank financing of its own.