Mozambique’s state-owned power utility, EDM, closed in 2025 with rising personnel costs and a falling bottom line, a combination that underscores the tension between workforce expansion and profitability facing state utilities across the region. The company spent 8.5 billion meticais (US$133.2 million at current exchange rates) on staff remuneration in 2025, up from 8.3 billion meticais, according to a report released by the country’s Institute for the Management of State Holdings (IGEPE).
The increase reflects deliberate growth rather than cost drift as EDM added 277 new employees during the year, alongside career progression tied to performance evaluations. “The increase observed in the employee remuneration category is primarily due to new hires and employee career progression resulting from the performance evaluation process. In 2025, the company hired an additional 277 employees. Impairment losses rose from 43.3 million meticais to 128.2 million meticais, while personnel costs increased from 8.3 billion to 8.5 billion Meticais,” the report stated.
EDM recorded a 2025 profit of 7.2 billion meticais, down 1.2 billion meticais from the 8.6 billion meticais posted in 2024. The decline shows up across multiple lines: operating results fell from 2.4 billion meticais in 2024 to 2.1 billion meticais in 2025, while financial earnings dropped more sharply, from 9.4 billion meticais to 7.6 billion meticais. The report added, “EDM experienced a decline in operating results, falling from 2.4 billion meticais in 2024 to 2.1 billion meticais in 2025. Similarly, the company’s financial earnings dropped from 9.4 billion meticais in 2024 to 7.6 billion meticais.”
Sales also softened, slipping from 59.6 billion meticais in 2024 to 58.7 billion meticais in 2025. Receivables remain a persistent drag on the balance sheet, with debts owed to EDM totalled 8.7 billion meticais in 2025, with 6.5 billion meticais of that owed by the National Treasury Directorate itself, meaning the state is effectively the utility’s largest debtor. The 2025 dip follows a markedly stronger 2024, when EDM’s profits grew by 3.8 billion meticais compared with 2023, a year in which the company posted a profit of 4.8 billion meticais. Viewed against that trajectory, 2025’s results look less like a structural reversal and more like a normalisation after an unusually strong prior year, though the growing Treasury receivable and rising impairment losses are worth watching as indicators of underlying balance-sheet strain heading into 2026.
