How much does a business CCTV system cost in Maputo?

Between 100 and 250 thousand meticais for a small office, installed and VAT included. I know because this is what we quote every week: the most recent proposal I sent, migrating an office from 7 analogue cameras to a modern IP system, closed at about 135 thousand meticais. I have also signed proposals of 342 thousand for a single industrial site. The difference is not magic — it comes down to five concrete factors, and it pays to understand them before you ask for quotes.

Where these numbers come from

I dislike pricing articles written from thin air, so I will use two real proposals we prepared this year (no client names, of course).

The first: an office in Maputo with an old analogue system, poor image, no remote access. We migrated everything to 7 IP cameras at 4MP with smart person and vehicle detection, a PoE recorder that powers the cameras through the network cable itself, and 140 metres of new Cat6 cabling. Total: close to 135 thousand meticais with VAT, excluding the recording disk, which was quoted separately.

The second: a new industrial site in Tete. 7 fixed cameras plus a PTZ with 25x optical zoom to cover the yard, recorder, a 10TB video disk, a UPS to ride out the power cuts, a rack and 300 metres of cable. That one closed at 342 thousand, excluding team logistics to Tete.

Two systems, both with 7 or 8 cameras — and one costs more than double the other. That is where the five factors come in.

What makes the price move

1. Camera type matters more than camera count. A professional 4MP fixed camera runs 7 to 9 thousand meticais. A PTZ, with motorised rotation and zoom, costs 4 to 5 times that. One poorly justified PTZ ruins a budget; well placed, it replaces three fixed cameras on a large yard.
2. Recording has its own cost, and people forget it. A 10TB video disk — enough for roughly 30 days of continuous recording on an 8-camera 4MP system — costs around 40 thousand meticais. If the requirement is 60 or 90 days, storage multiplies.
3. Cabling is the most underestimated factor. 140 metres in an office is one thing; 300 metres across an industrial site, with conduits, junction boxes and fixings, is another. And where cable simply cannot go, dedicated wireless links come in, with their own cost.
4. Power and protection. In an office with stable power, the recorder plugs into the wall. On a site with frequent cuts, a UPS and surge protection are not optional — they are the difference between recording the incident and losing exactly the minutes that mattered.
5. Where the site is. Outside Maputo, technical team travel and accommodation enter the equation. In our proposals for Tete or Beira, logistics is always a separate line.

Price ranges (2026, VAT included)

Sites outside Maputo add logistics and travel costs, quoted per project.

And after the installation?

Here is the part almost no supplier puts in the proposal: a CCTV system without maintenance degrades within months. Dust on lenses, connectors that oxidise, disks that fill up. We currently maintain more than 80 cameras under maintenance contracts with daily remote checks and monthly uptime reports, and the lesson from years of doing this is simple: most companies only discover the recording failed on the day they need it. A maintenance contract costs a fraction of the system — an incident with no footage always costs more.

Where companies get it wrong

Three mistakes we see regularly: buying domestic Wi-Fi kits for business use (no reliable recording, no commercial warranty, dead at the first power cut); installing without a design, with cameras pointed where mounting is easy rather than where it matters; and treating CCTV as a one-off expense with no maintenance plan. Each of the three ends up costing more than it seemed to save.

Frequently asked questions