Mozambique's Financial Intelligence Unit, GIFiM, has identified suspected money laundering operations in the real estate sector totalling approximately 5 billion meticais between January 2021 and November 2025, involving businesspeople, shell companies, civil servants, and politically exposed persons (PEPs).

The findings are contained in the second Strategic Analysis Report published this year by GIFiM, according to Lusa. The document describes cases in which individuals and legal entities received large sums through cash deposits and bank transfers that were subsequently channelled into property acquisitions.

The transactions under analysis totalled 5,006,719,207 meticais. GIFiM suspects the funds originated from illicit sources and that their placement in real estate was intended to conceal that origin.

The volumes detected rose sharply over the final three years of the period under review: from approximately 408 million meticais in 2023 to 1,589 million meticais in 2024, and 3,009 million meticais between January and November 2025. This last figure represents roughly 60% of the total amount identified.

Among the categories of actors involved, operations linked to businesspeople accounted for the largest share at 2,696 million meticais, followed by shell companies at 940.5 million meticais, civil servants at 793.9 million meticais, and PEPs at 503.7 million meticais.

The report also describes instances in which public entities transferred resources to private companies that subsequently acquired real estate. In some cases, GIFiM suspects that properties were purchased in the names of third parties — civil servants or individuals connected to them — as a form of bribe payment.

Allegedly fictitious companies were also identified as having received large sums without demonstrating any economic activity commensurate with the funds handled. Those funds were ultimately directed towards real estate operators.

Maputo, Matola, Beira, and Nampula account for the majority of cases analysed. GIFiM acknowledges, however, that the true scale of the phenomenon may be greater than what has been identified.

The predicate offences suspected of having generated the funds include corruption, tax fraud, influence peddling, criminal association, and document forgery. The conclusions represent suspicions identified through financial analysis and do not constitute judicial confirmation of any of these crimes.

The study drew on 672 suspicious transaction reports, 15 suspicious activity reports, 11,612 threshold reports, 12 information requests, and 36 financial intelligence reports produced by GIFiM.

The analysis comes as Mozambique consolidates its anti-money laundering framework. The country was removed from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list on 24 October 2025, following three years of enhanced monitoring. From September 2027, Mozambique will be required to demonstrate continued progress in strengthening measures to combat money laundering, terrorist financing, and the financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.