China Eximbank provides $14.7 million loan for Distance Learning Project

On May 30, 2012, the Government of Mozambique ratified a $14.7 million loan agreement with China Eximbank for a Distance Learning Project. The borrowing terms of the loan are unknown. The project involves the creation of 45 distance learning centers. Its purpose is to help teachers to engage in distance learning activities while continuing to perform their teaching duties. ZTE is the contractor responsible for implementation. There are some indications that the China Eximbank loan for the Distance Learning Project may have financially underperformed vis-a-vis the original expectations of the lender. In 2016, several credit rating agencies downgraded the Government of Mozambique to 'selective default' or 'restricted default' status, and the World Bank and the IMF re-classified Mozambique's external debt as 'in distress.' In January 2017, the Government of Mozambique defaulted on a coupon payment for its dollar-denominated Eurobond. Then, in February 2018, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that the Government of Mozambique had accumulated $710 million in arrears to external creditors and had agreed to reschedule some bilateral debt service payments with the Chinese Government. Two months later, in April 2018, Stelia Neta, a National Director at the Ministry of Finance of Mozambique revealed that the Government of Mozambique’s outstanding debt obligations to the Chinese Government amounted to $2.02 billion and the Chinese Government had agreed to extend the grace periods (and first principal repayments) on these outstanding debt obligations without changing their final maturity dates or interest rates (as captured via Project ID#66283).

Additional details

1. The Portuguese project title is Projecto de Ensino à Distância. It is also known as the Projecto de Ensino à Distância (e-Learning). 2. The loan that supported this project is omitted from the SAIS-CARI database of Chinese loan commitments that was released in July 2020.

Number of official sources

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