About Mozambique
Mozambique, located in south eastern Africa shares borders with Swaziland, South Africa, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania. After nearly 500 years of Portuguese colonial rule, Mozambique became fully independent in 1975 following a bloody conflict which led to successive large scale emigration, economic dependence on South Africa, severe food shortages and a civil war after the Portuguese had left. This greatly hindered Mozambique′s development until the mid 1990′s. The Marxism theory was formally abandoned by Mozambique′s ruling party in 1989 and a newly written constitution that took effect later that year provided for multi party elections and a free market economy. In late 2004 Mozambique under went a delicate transition as Joaquin Chissano stepped down from office after 18 years. His successor Armando Emilio Guebuza promised to continue the sound economic policies adopted by his predecessor which has lead to the rapid development of Mozambique.
Whenever you travel to a new country it can be daunting and because of this it is often important to have some background information on your destination. Because of this we have provided a general outline of Mozambique below. Please be advised that information contained in this page is subject to change without prior warning or knowledge, and as such you should consult an expert for the most accurate details.
Official Name: Republic of Mozambique
Capital: Maputo
Location: Southeastern Africa, bordering South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Malawi.
Size: Mozambique is approximately 801,590 sq km; this is slightly bigger than Turkey.
Climate: Mozambique is tropical to the north, with sweltering year round temperatures and sub tropical to the south with a cool break during the middle months of the year.
Population: Mozambique has an approximate population of 21.6 million people.
Life expectancy: Mozambique has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world, with the average life expectancy being 41.18 years old.
Major illnesses: There is a very high risk of catching a major infectious disease whilst in Mozambique, a range that includes bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, malaria, plague, schistosomiasis and as of 2009 there has been rampant cases of rabies.
Ethnicities: African 99.96% with Europeans, Euro-Africans and Indians forming a small minority.
Languages: The official language is Portuguese, with 27% of the population being able to speak it, other languages include traditional African dialects, clicking and humming.
Religion: Religion in Mozambique is broken down into the following Catholic 23.8%, Muslim 17.8%, Zionist Christian 17.5%, other 17.8%, none 23.1%, (none consisting largely of traditional African tribe practices)
Head of State: Armando Guebuza is the current president of Mozambique.
Economy : After its independence in 1975 Mozambique was one of the world′s poorest countries. This was largely in part due to the socialist mismanagement and brutal civil war which followed from 1977-1992. In 1987 the government embarked on implementations of macroeconomic policies designed to stabilize the economy and bring down inflation from its traditional high double digit figures. These efforts combined with international aid and a stable political arena since 1994 has further enabled sound economic growth. The Mozambican economy heavily relies on agricultural exports to fuel its economy; however recent droughts have severely impacted on these exports.
GDP: Mozambique has the GDP purchasing power of approximately 18.95 billion USD.
For more information about Mozambique, the international health insurance plans that we can offer there, or to receive a free quote, please contact one of our expert advisers today.