Maputo, Mozambique, 15 Jan – Norway’s Nordic Development Fund has opened up a credit line worth 3.3 million euros to finance small and medium-sized Mozambican forestry sector companies, according to Mozambican weekly newspaper Domingo.

The National Directorate for Land and Forests (DNTF) of the Agriculture Ministry, which is responsible for the credit line in Mozambique, handed over its management to the Society for Promotion of Small Investments, which will select the beneficiaries via a public tender.

According to the director of the DNTF, Imede Falume, the funding is aimed at investment operations to acquire equipment such as trucks, saws, reforestation activities, acquiring raw materials as well as ongoing expenses.

The loans may be granted to individuals or to associations of small forestry operators, as well as to communities.

According to Falume, the maximum amount provided to each operator has been increased to 150,000 euros, in order to ensure the participation of operators based in provinces other than Sofala, Zambezia and Cabo Delgado, which are the provinces with greatest potential.

These three provinces were the only ones to benefit from loans in 2006, when the initiative was launched, because these are areas with greatest forest exploration and a high number of operators with simple licenses and an extremely reduced number of concessionary operators. (macauhub)