Database
Mozambican manufacturing firms database

The survey is a collaborative effort of the Centre for Economic and Management Studies at Eduardo Mondlane University, the Mozambican Confederation of Economic Associations, the Development Economics Research Group at the University of Copenhagen, and UNU-WIDER.

The survey instrument consists of two questionnaires: (i) a main enterprise-level questionnaire for owners or managers and (ii) an exit questionnaire for any firms that closed between the first round in 2012 and 2017. The enterprise-level survey solicited information on firm performance, enterprise history, employment, business environment, and owner and manager background characteristics. It also included an economic accounts module, which lists revenues, costs, assets, and liabilities.

Available for download are the survey instruments (in PDF format) and the datasets for 2012 and 2017 together with the cleaning and merge do-files (in STATA format). Descriptive reports for 2012 and 2017 are also available.

Mozambican manufacturing firms data	Survey instruments
Complete form to access enterprise data for 2012 and 2017	Survey-Instruments.zip

Please cite the data as follows: UEM, KU and UNU-WIDER (year of survey). Survey of Mozambican Manufacturing Firms.

About the data

The data was collected through a survey carried out in seven provinces of Mozambique: Nampula, Tete, Manica, Sofala, Gaza, Maputo Província and Maputo Cidade. The data are based on face-to-face interviews with firm owners or managers, or, in the case of exit questionnaires, with knowledgeable informants. The data was collected in May-August 2012 and in June-September in 2017. 

The enterprises surveyed were distributed across 17 sectors, including: manufacture of wood products, manufacture of furniture, food processing, and manufacture of fabricated metal products. Enterprises were classified according to the World Bank definition of small and medium-sized enterprises, with micro-enterprises having up to 10 employees, small enterprises up to 50 employees, medium-sized enterprises up to 300 employees, and large enterprises having more than 300 employees.

Sampling methodology

The 2012 survey has two dimensions: a cross-sectional dimension, with 761 firms interviewed in 2012, and a panel dimension, with 216 firms interviewed by the University of Copenhagen in 2006 and 2012. The sampling strategy was based on the 2002 firm census (CEMPRE) of the Mozambican Statistics Bureau.

The sample was limited to the seven provinces with the largest concentration of manufacturing firms, which accounted for around 85% of Mozambique’s manufacturing firms in 2012. Within these provinces, the selected districts contained at least 50% of the manufacturing firms in the province.

The 2017 survey was a tracer survey, following up the firms interviewed in 2012. Of the companies interviewed in 2012, 523 were still operating and surveyed, and 216 companies had stopped operations but were interviewed using the exit questionnaire. Another 92 enterprises could not be traced or refused to take part in interviews.