A Brazilian firm has agreed to invest $3.2bn in a dam in the north of Mozambique, following the country’s invitation last month to foreign investors to help fund a series of power investment projects in the country.

Brazil’s Camargo Correia, an engineering and construction firm, has signed a memorandum of understanding to invest $3.2bn to build and possibly operate the dam in Mozambique's northern Tete province.

The company still needs to find funding for the project, which would have a production capacity of 1,500 MW of electricity, of which about 1,000 MW is expected to be exported to countries in southern Africa, including South Africa.

Last month the Mozambique government invited foreign investors to help fund and build hydropower projects in Mozambique, after the government identified 100 possible locations.

Antonio Saide, Mozambique’s national director of New and Renewable Energy, has said the country is gearing up to become an alternative energy supplier in the southern African region.