Leaked MoU gives Delaware company 80% of BMM for 25 years, sparking sovereignty and due-diligence fears
By Foreign Correspondent
Mozambique’s Ministry of Economy and Finance has agreed in principle to hand majority control of the state’s commodities exchange to a US-registered company for 25 years, according to a leaked memorandum of understanding seen by our Correspondent.
Governance specialists warn the deal would centralise unprecedented power over the country’s food and mineral trade in private hands.
Under the 2025 MoU, Emerging Markets Finance Corporation USA (EMFC) would take an 80% stake in the Mozambique Commodities Exchange (Bolsa de Mercadorias de Moçambique, BMM), with the state retaining 20%.
The restructured platform would oversee trading and certification for agricultural staples and high-value minerals, from rice and cashews to rubies, gold and natural gas.
An exclusivity clause would bar the government from negotiating with rival partners for 10 years.
“This is not a routine service contract; it outsources sovereignty over food security and mineral wealth,” said a Maputo-based governance analyst who reviewed the document and asked not to be named. “Awarding 80% without an open tender raises red flags about due diligence.”
Who is EMFC?
The signatory to the MoU is Ratko Knežević, a former Montenegrin diplomat and occasional whistle-blower in European proceedings.
His past also features unresolved controversies, including a 1997 UK arrest linked to alleged UN-sanctions breaches; the case did not proceed.
EMFC itself presents as a boutique advisory outfit registered in Delaware, with a limited public footprint.
Industry sources say there is no public record of EMFC running a commodities exchange of comparable scope in Africa.
“Integrating smallholder crops with gemstone and gold certification requires deep institutional capacity,” said a Johannesburg-based trader. “I’ve seen no track record for EMFC here.”
A deal with long reach
The MoU’s Clause 4 sets the 80–20 ownership split. Clause 9 reportedly shields EMFC from BMM’s historic or contingent liabilities, potentially leaving taxpayers exposed while future trading revenues flow to the new vehicle.
Although the stated agricultural brief highlights rice, sesame and macadamia, Clause 8 expands the remit to gold, gemstones, coal and even carbon credits, effectively privatising the chokepoint for major extractive revenues.
The document tasks EMFC with funding a feasibility study while granting it “exclusive and preferential” implementation rights thereafter, a classic lock-in mechanism that can blunt competitive tendering.
During the transition, EMFC would cover BMM salaries up to $14,000 per month, a modest outlay that nonetheless secures operational leverage.
Why it matters
- Cashews: Exports were valued at about $98.2-million in 2024, supporting more than a million rural households. Control of BMM would shape price discovery and market access.
- Rubies: Output neared four million carats in 2024, led by Montepuez Ruby Mining. Giving EMFC/BMM certification authority inserts a private intermediary between the state and royalty flows.
- Food security: Mozambique’s 2024 rice import bill was roughly $441-million, up nearly 39% year-on-year, heightening vulnerability to procurement decisions.
“If you control certification and the trading platform, you control the revenue pipe,” said Borges Nhamirre of the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP). “Why accept a minority in your own house?”
Echoes of the hidden-debts era
Analysts caution that the arrangement echoes opaque contracting practices that culminated in the 2016 “hidden debts” scandal.
Although a settlement in late 2024 reportedly reduced the state’s exposure, the new exchange and related special-purpose vehicles (SPVs) proposed by EMFC in Delaware or Mauritius could again push risks off the sovereign balance sheet while enabling off-ledger fees.
A separate government push in early 2026 to centralise rice and wheat imports at the Institute of Cereals of Mozambique (ICM) underscores the trend.
Layering a private monopoly atop a state monopoly, legal analysts warn, invites rent-seeking.
The BMM deal sits within a wider ecosystem of informal power-brokers around Mozambique’s extractives and real estate sectors.
Well-connected figures such as Alcides Viegas Chihono (“Cantoná”) and Ingilo Dalsuco, son-in-law of jailed former finance minister Manuel Chang, have been cited by critics as emblematic of a patronage economy where access can trump institutions.
Property records indicate multimillion-metical state-linked real-estate transactions since 2015, fuelling persistent questions about influence over public assets.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance did not respond to questions. The Ministry of Industry and Commerce said it would not comment on documents that have not been officially gazetted.
EMFC and Ratko Knežević could not be reached through publicly available channels.
“For farmers, this is existential,” said Ana Costa, who coordinates a producers’ association in Nampula. “If the exchange extracts value instead of supporting producers, rural economies will be hit first. We need transparency about who these investors are, and why they now control rice and cashews.”
