Nosso Banco is told to close

MOZAMBIQUE’S central bank has ordered the closure of privately owned Nosso Banco, it said at the weekend, less than two months after a liquidity crunch and bailout of the nation’s fourth largest bank, Moza Banco. The Bank of Mozambique said Nosso Banco had continued to face weaker earnings growth and was poorly capitalised. “The bank has shown that it is unable to overcome the difficult economic and financial situation in which it finds itself,” the central bank said in a statement posted on its website. Nosso’s 2015 accounts show it has 76 employees. Mozambique’s economy and currency have been hit hard this year by a financial crisis stemming from more than $2 billion (R28.58bn) in foreign borrowing since 2013 that was not included in the budget or approved by parliament. – Reuters