From late November 2026, promotional SMS in Mozambique will only reach subscribers who have opted in to that category through their own network. The regulator INCM issued a resolution on 2 June 2026 that splits business SMS into promotional, transactional and OTP traffic and gives Vodacom, Movitel and Tmcel 180 days to put the whitelist and a free global block in place.
Last reviewed: 28 October 2026. This article summarises public rules and is not legal advice. Check edge cases with the regulator.
That makes this the most important change for anyone sending to Mozambique this year. This guide explains the new rule, what it means for each kind of message, how Portuguese accents affect cost, the three mobile money wallets and a setup checklist. For a quick overview, see our earlier bulk SMS summary for Mozambique.
Mozambique at a glance
| Item | What to know |
|---|---|
| Communications regulator | INCM (Instituto Nacional das Comunicações de Moçambique); some reports now use the title Autoridade Reguladora das Comunicações |
| A2P SMS rule | INCM resolution of 2 June 2026: PROMO, TRANS/SERV and OTP categories; promotional opt-in whitelist |
| Data protection | No comprehensive law in force yet; a Personal Data Protection Bill was published for consultation in 2025 |
| Mobile networks | Vodacom, Movitel, Tmcel |
| Number format | +258 followed by 9 digits starting with 8, e.g. +258 84 XXX XXXX |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Currency | Metical (MZN), written locally as MT |
The 2026 INCM resolution in plain terms
According to reports by Lusa and RTP, the resolution applies to application-to-person (A2P) SMS sent from short codes, and from ordinary mobile numbers used at scale. Its main points:
- Three categories. Traffic is classified as PROMO (promotional), TRANS/SERV (transactional and service) and OTP (authentication codes).
- Opt-in for promotions. PROMO messages may only be delivered to subscribers who have authorised that category in advance through their operator, a whitelist.
- A free global block. Operators must give subscribers a simple, free way to block all promotional SMS. Once the block is active, only emergency messages from identified senders such as hospitals, ambulances and fire services get through, and promotional, commercial or betting content is prohibited.
- Enforcement on senders. Operators must temporarily block abusive bulk senders, suspend misused short codes and report them to the INCM. A2P traffic on short codes must go through registered, auditable channels.
- Timeline. Operators had 60 days to submit an implementation plan and up to 180 days from 2 June 2026 to make the system operational. By our count that is around 29 November 2026.
The reports do not spell out every detail of how transactional and OTP traffic will be treated once a subscriber activates the global block. Expect each network to publish its own procedure, and plan for some disruption while it settles.
What it means for each type of message
| Your message | Likely category | What to do now |
|---|---|---|
| Login, sign-up or payment code | OTP | Keep the text to the code and your brand; no offers |
| M-Pesa or bank transaction alert, receipt | TRANS/SERV | Strip promotional lines from templates |
| Delivery, appointment, outage notice | TRANS/SERV | Keep factual; one purpose per message |
| Discounts, new products, betting offers | PROMO | Expect delivery only to whitelisted subscribers; consider other channels for the rest |
The biggest risk is mixed messages. A receipt that ends with "win a phone this weekend" may be treated as promotional and blocked for every subscriber who has not opted in. Split them into two templates now.
Data protection: no general law yet
Mozambique does not yet have a comprehensive personal data protection law. The Electronic Transactions Law (Law 3/2017) gives only sectoral protection to personal data and does not regulate consent in detail. A Personal Data Protection Bill was published for public consultation in 2025; law firm reviews describe it as aligned with the African Union convention, with a new data protection authority, and the draft would prohibit unsolicited electronic communications without express consent.
Until a law passes, the INCM resolution is the rule that actually governs your SMS campaigns. Build your consent records now, because the bill points in the same direction.
Networks and numbers
Mozambican mobile numbers are 9 digits starting with 8, written in E.164 as +258 followed by the number. Prefixes are commonly associated with a network (84 and 85 with Vodacom, 86 and 87 with Movitel, 82 and 83 with Tmcel), but use delivery reports rather than prefixes to judge reach. Remove any leading 00258 or spaces before import.
All three networks run a mobile money wallet: M-Pesa on Vodacom, e-Mola on Movitel and mKesh on Tmcel. The three have been interoperable since December 2022, so a customer on one network can pay a merchant on another. That matters for reminders: you can give one merchant number and still name the customer's own wallet.
Portuguese and SMS encoding
Portuguese is hard on the GSM-7 alphabet. GSM-7 includes é, è, à, ù and the capital Ç, but not á, ã, õ, í, ó, ú, the circumflex letters â, ê and ô, or the lower-case ç. One "Olá" or "não" switches the whole message to Unicode, which holds 70 characters instead of 160, and 67 per part when split.
You have two choices. Write naturally and budget for Unicode, keeping messages under 70 characters where possible. Or write without accents, which is common in SMS but looks less polished for a bank or insurer. Whatever you choose, preview the part count in the dashboard before you send.
A short accented message that stays within one Unicode part:
BancoXYZ: transação de 2.500,00 MT concluída. Saldo 18.430,00 MT.
An unaccented message in GSM-7, which leaves room for more detail:
LOJAMAIS: Pedido 5521 pronto para levantar na Av. 24 de Julho ate sexta-feira. Pague por M-Pesa ou e-Mola. Duvidas: 840000000
Use cases
- Banks and microfinance: transaction alerts and repayment reminders, kept strictly transactional.
- Retail and e-commerce in Maputo and Matola: order and pickup notices.
- Health: appointment reminders and campaign dates, without diagnoses in the text.
- Agriculture: input distribution dates and buying-point notices in Nampula, Zambezia and Manica.
- Apps and fintechs: OTP through eSMS Verify, sent as clean authentication traffic.
Sending from your system
Use separate templates, and ideally separate sender IDs, for transactional and promotional traffic so each is easy to classify. A transactional send by API:
curl -X POST https://sms.esmsafrica.io/api/messages/send \
-H "Authorization: Bearer esms_live_..." \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"to": "+258840000001", "text": "LOJAMAIS: Pedido 5521 pronto para levantar.", "sender_id": "LOJAMAIS"}'
See the HTTP API docs for bulk sends and scheduling, and register your brand through the Mozambique sender ID page. You can test on the eSMS default sender while yours is registered.
Cost
A one-part SMS to Mozambique costs MZN 3.5 ($0.0548) at the basic tier, with MZN 3 and MZN 2.5 at higher volumes. Unicode messages use more parts, so the encoding decision above has a direct cost. Pay as you go from USD 20 by card or crypto. See pricing and the Mozambique coverage page.
Setup checklist
- Sort every template into OTP, transactional or promotional.
- Remove promotional lines from receipts, alerts and OTPs.
- Use separate sender IDs for transactional and promotional traffic where possible.
- Record consent for promotional contacts and expect operator whitelists from about the end of November 2026.
- Normalise numbers to +258 and 9 digits.
- Decide on accented Portuguese (Unicode) or unaccented text (GSM-7) per template.
- Name M-Pesa, e-Mola or mKesh correctly in payment reminders.
- Monitor delivery reports per network after the new rule goes live.
Frequently asked questions
Will my OTP messages be blocked under the new rule?
The resolution treats OTP as its own category, separate from promotions. Keep OTP texts free of any promotional content so they are classified correctly, and watch delivery reports when the system goes live.
When does the promotional whitelist start?
Operators have up to 180 days from the 2 June 2026 resolution, which we calculate as around 29 November 2026. Individual networks may switch on earlier.
Does Mozambique have a data protection law?
Not a comprehensive one yet. A bill was published for consultation in 2025. The INCM resolution already requires opt-in for promotional SMS.
Why do my Portuguese messages cost more?
Letters such as a tilde, o tilde and c cedilla are outside GSM-7, so the message switches to Unicode with a 70-character limit per part.
Sources
- Club of Mozambique (Lusa) - Mozambique moves to block unsolicited promotional SMS under new consent rules
- RTP - Mocambique passa a bloquear SMS promocionais sem autorizacao do utilizador
- PLMJ - Mozambique Personal Data Protection Bill
- Techhive Advisory - Review of Mozambique's proposed personal data protection law
- VdA - legal opinion on the Electronic Transactions Law (PDF)
- Telecom Review Africa - Mozambique mobile money interoperability
Plan your traffic on the bulk SMS page for Mozambique, then create an account and test with a free test key. If you send high volumes of promotional traffic and want help preparing for the whitelist, talk to our team.
