Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi has sacked Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Pedro Couto, the presidency said this Thursday, reshuffling a department currently negotiating multi-billion-dollar gas projects.

Immediately, Couto was elected CEO of the State power company, Cahora Bassa Hydroelectric (HCB, acronym in Portuguese), replacin Paulo Muxanga, through an Extraordinary General Meeting held in hurry to decide on the election of members of the governing bodies fo the company for teh next three years (2016-2018).

 

The measure is taken within the powers of the Head of State under subparagraph a) of paragraph 2 of Article 160 of the Constitution.

Pedro Couto was serving as minister of Mineral Resources and Energy since January 2015, when Filipe Nyusi formed his government following the presidential and legislative elections in October 2014.

Master in Economics from the University of Glasgow, UK, in 1995, Pedro Couto, in the course of his professional career, was part of the group that drafted the 2005-2009 Five Year Plan , was co-author of the preparation of the 2001-2005 Plan of action for Reduction of Absolute Poverty (PARPA), and led the team that created the proposal for Mozambique to join the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

Pedro Couto is a member of the University Council of Eduardo Mondlne University and the National Higher Education Council, Science and Technology, and member of the working group for the harmonisation and alignment of external assistance since 2002.

 

No immediate reason was given for Couto’s dismissal.