Mozambique to limit use of Credit/Debit Card Abroad to US$13,600

MAPUTO, Mozambique, Capital Markets in Africa — The Bank of Mozambique has set an annual limit of 700,000 meticais (about US$13,600) for payments abroad using a credit or debit card issued by a Mozambican bank.

The governor of the central bank, Ernesto Gove, had warned on Nov 30 that large sums of money were leaving the country through the unrestrained use of bank cards abroad, and that this type of spending had risen dramatically. The metical has plunged 37 percent again the dollar this year.

Credit- and debit-card transactions by Mozambicans abroad jumped to US$800 million last year from $300 million in 2012, and equivalent to more than half of the country’s 2014 exports of about $1.5 billion, according to Governor Gove.

A global decline in commodity prices has cut Mozambique’s revenue from exports of coal, gas, sugar and cotton and the currency’s plunge against the dollar makes it Africa’s second-worst performer this year.

However, It has finds gas in the offshore northern Rovuma basin that could help turn the country into the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas exporter in a decade.