Ernesto Max Elias Tonela (born 14 October 1968) is a Mozambican economist and politician who has been the Minister of Economy and Finance since March 2022.

[2] Tonela was the contact point of The Ford Foundation in Maputo from 1990 to 1992, acting as a link between the regional office in Harare and the organisation in Mozambique.

[2] On 19 January 2015, Tonela was appointed as Minister of Industry and Commerce by the newly elected president Filipe Nyusi.

[3] Following Nyusi's re-election in the 2019 presidential election, he announced his new cabinet in January 2020, in which he kept Tonela as Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy.

[4][5] In a major cabinet reshuffle on 2 March 2022, Nyusi removed Tonela and five other ministers from their positions without giving reasons for their dismissal.