The CEO of Mozambique’s BNI bank, Dr. Tomás Matola, spoke in a press conference yesterday, sharing data about the bank’s most recent credit lines, aimed at assisting the country’s SMEs to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
BNI total funds from the two credit lines – “GovCOVID-19” and “BNI-COVID-19” – amounted to roughly £16M (about US$21,5M), which Dr. Matola explained were greatly exceeded (in 600%, in fact) by the financing demand shown by Mozambican companies looking to weather the current hardships brought about by the pandemic.
In total, 1058 credit applications were received, 585 (55%) from Mozambique’s south region, 293 (28%) from the central region and 180 (17%) from the north region.
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Dr. Matola stated that out of all the applications received, a total of 21% have been approved for financing, 48% from the south region, 32% for the central region and 20% from the north region.
Below you will find a detailed breakdown of each of the most represented sectors which were benefitted through BNI’s credit lines, in relation to their total share and also their share in their respective regions:
| SECTOR | % TOTAL | SOUTH | CENTRE | NORTH |
| Commerce | 29% | 17% | 37% | 55% |
| Poultry / Livestock | 16% | 25% | 3% | 16% |
| Tourism | 9% | 13% | 6% | 4% |
| Food processing Industry | 8% | 2% | 16% | 11% |
| Agriculture | 6% | 4% | 11% | 5% |
| Education | 6% | 9% | 1% | 5% |