Chief Financial Officer of Mozambique Mining Exploration Company (EMEM)
Major General Daniel Frazão Chale is the new Chief Financial Officer of the Mozambican Mining Exploration Company (Empresa Moçambicana de Exploração Mineira in Portuguese). The state-owned company controls the development of mining projects in Mozambique and will be central to the economic growth of the country in the coming years.
Chale was chief of staff for the former President of the Republic, Armando Guebuza, and was commander of the Higher Defence Studies Institute Lieutenant General Armando Emílio Guebuza (Instituto Superior de Estudos de Defesa “Tenente-General Armando Emílio Guebuza ) for many years. Chale left the Institute in July 2017, when the current President of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi, exonerated him and appointed Major-General Samuel Luluva to his position.
During his military career, he was also the logistics and infrastructural commander of the Mozambique Defence Armed Forces (Forças Armadas de Defesa de Moçambique). Recently, he moved away from his military career into the public and private sectors.
Upon returning to the private sector, Chale, through the company Gedena, became the chairman of the board of directors of Grupo do Norte, a holding company that holds Normasa – Construtora do Norte and Nortec, along with other smaller companies and family businesses.
Local sources indicate that Filipe Nyusi himself is also a shareholder of the Grupo do Norte, which has interests in the Maconde ethnic group of Cabo Delgado in the north of Mozambique.
Daniel Chale has been active in the tourism sector both in Mozambique and the Nacala region, educational sector (he has a PhD and is committed to obtaining a license to open a new university in the region of Nampula), and in the prospecting of rubies, precious and semi-precious stones, coal and gold in northern Mozambique.
Chale also has interests in agriculture and is a partner of Olima Investimentos – the group’s interests and businesses fall within many sectors. Among the members of this investment group are the maconde General Lagos Lidimo who until a few months ago was director of the State Intelligence and Security Service (Serviço de Inteligência e Segurança do Estado). He was considered to be one of the most influential people in the Mozambican military in recent years.
President Filipe Nyusi, encouraged Daniel Chale’s entry into the public sector as he was aware that Chale could be an important and strategic ally. In EMEM, Frazão is responsible for the financial sector, the company’s expansion, and the Mozambican state’s participation in mining companies.
Historically, the EMEM has always been controlled by the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique). Francisco Casimiro has been the chairman of EMEM’s Board of Directors since 2013.
Chale is married with two daughters and is a Muslim. Through EMEM, Chale is once again closer to the circles of the Presidency of the Republic, as he was during Guebuza’s mandate.
