MAPUTO (Reuters) -Qatari investment firm Al Mansour Holding has signed a $20 billion partnership agreement with Mozambique to support sectors the government is prioritising including energy and agriculture, President Daniel Chapo’s office said.
It is the latest in a series of investments by Al Mansour Holding across Africa, with similar deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Botswana announced in the past two weeks.
The continent’s vast land resources, a paucity of key infrastructure and some of the world’s top mineral deposits crucial to the global renewable energy push have drawn increasing interest from Middle Eastern nations and companies, which are vying for influence with rivals such as China and the United States.
Earlier on Wednesday Al Mansour Holding, which is led by Sheikh Mansour bin Jabor bin Jassim Al Thani, announced the acquisition of a 19.9% stake in Australia’s Invictus Energy to help finance a promising gas project in Zimbabwe.
“We are not here to compete, we are here to complement. We are not here to take, we are here to build,” he said in a statement after meeting Chapo on Tuesday, adding that Al Mansour Holding was in Africa for the long-term.
In Zambia, President Hakainde Hichilema announced on August 18 that the investment firm had pledged $19 billion in investments for the southern African nation.
(Reporting by Custodio CossaWriting by Wendell RoelfEditing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo and Frances Kerry)
