Developed economy trains for business
PROVINCE OF BENGUELA The government is boosting investment to raise the number of students at school and supporting small to medium-sized companies

hough one of Angola’s smallest provinces, Benguela is generally recognized as having the second most developed economy after the capital, Luanda.
Benguela governor Dumilde Rangel hopes to encourage investors to promote further development.
“We have created the essential conditions for foreign investors to feel comfortable here,” he says. “We are open to proposals from companies with experience and know-how.”
One of Mr Rangel’s priorities has been to rehabilitate the agricultural sector, where there is strong potential for growth. Benguela, located on the coast south of the Angolan capital, Luanda, has rich soils, a varied climate and big rivers to provide water for irrigation and hydropower.
The government’s efforts to revive the farming sector appear to have met with some success. One program has enabled a group of producers to raise their annual yields to six tons per hectare.

Rangel: exports

Last year the province received official approval for a bigger scheme, Novo Milho, which is backed by the Angolan and Portuguese governments. It aims to raise yield rates at all farms to at least four tons per hectare.
“With this project, we could end starvation in Benguela,” says Mr Rangel. “Today, we don’t import corn any more – we export it to Luanda.”
Benguela is also active in livestock production with one million head of cattle – at least a fifth of the national total. Other farm products with potential for expansion include coffee, wheat, sorghum, fruit and vegetables.
The government says about one million hectares of land are available for development and officials have plans to reactivate mills that have stood idle for several years.
Benguela’s maritime waters are already a lucrative source of employment for the fisheries industry. The province accounts for 45 percent of the Angolan national catch and Mr Rangel has ambitions for the sector.
“We have projects to increase our annual capacity from 20,000 to 30,000 tons, introducing a modern fish processing industry,” he says.

Benguela’s economy is by no means entirely based on agriculture though. The port of Lobito is the biggest on the West African coastline between the Gulf of Guinea and the Cape of Good Hope, and it is developing into a regional maritime center.
The province has a very underused industrial sector, including shipyards, machinery, metalworking, electronic equipment, tobacco and textiles. With many plants having closed down due to the civil war, industrial output is currently running at about a fifth of installed capacity.
Mr Rangel’s government is keen to advance the spirit of private enterprise. “We have programs that provide professional training because we want to raise a new generation of business executives with new perspectives and modern organizational systems,” he says.
Business training has been budgeted at $30 million, mainly financed by the governments of Portugal (40 percent) and Angola (50 percent).

“We are leaving the other 10 percent for the participation of private investors,” says Mr Rangel, adding that interest has been expressed by potential investors in Spain, France and the UK. “The objective of this project is to promote the production sector by supporting small and medium-sized companies.”
The starting point, of course, is to ensure that schools provide an adequately educated supply of potential business trainees, and the government is trying to tackle this issue as well.
“We have increased the number of [school] students from 130,000 to 200,000, but there are still problems
to overcome,” the governor says. “We have 200,000 children outside the education system, which means we must apply strong investment.”

Potential resources
There are endless other areas requiring investment as the province tries to reconstruct itself, such as infrastructure. A hydroelectricity dam and another power station need to be rebuilt, as do roads, water and sewage facilities, and the railroads. One hope for the future is that Benguela may soon be able to start exploiting its offshore resources of oil and natural gas, where the potential of four concession blocks is thought to be considerable. “Some studies will be concluded this year, and we can start drilling on blocks 21, 22, 23 and 24,” says Mr Rangel.
A yard to build offshore oil-drilling platforms has been set up at Lobito. Plans call for a refinery to process up to 200,000 barrels per day of oil and the installation of power turbines if natural gas is discovered offshore.
The province’s beautiful beaches hold opportunities for the fledgling tourism sector, but realists warn that while rebel forces mount sporadic attacks development may have to wait.

Strategic links for Porto do Lobito

Trade mark: reorganizing and updating the port to international standards

he port of Lobito on the Atlantic coast has been expanded and modernized in anticipation of the increase in trade that a durable peace is expected to create.
“We are preparing both mentally and materially in order to be ready when peace comes,” says Porto do Lobito general director Jose Carlos Gomes. “We are just waiting for a lasting peace.”
Reorganizing and updating the port, which fell into a state of serious disrepair some years ago, has involved substantial investment, he says. His intention is to bring facilities at Lobito, which is already one of the largest ports in terms of handling shipments to Europe, up to international standards.
The port, in Benguela province, has natural advantages, not least that it is located in a large, deep bay and is not subject to river flows, as many other ports are. The water depth in the port is 22 meters and the maximum depth in the bay is 46 meters.
Lobito’s potential as a regional port is enhanced by its railroad links to Zambia, Namibia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Botswana and South Africa. It is the only port in the region with such an extensive network of onshore links.

Gomes: preparing

Mr Gomes says some of the railroad was severely damaged during the conflict. “Trees cover the tracks and huge investment will be needed to restore the railroads.” In addition, a long bridge was destroyed and will have to be rebuilt.
He believes there should be an agreement among Angola’s neighbors to help it reconstruct these links. He adds: “They would take advantage of it for the transportation of their mineral products and their imports”.
The port has been instrumental in encouraging foreign investors to base their operations in Benguela. “They are welcome here as the importation and exportation of their products can go through this port, and I would be very happy for that to happen,” says Mr Gomes.

Successful management
He would like to do more to improve the port. Apart from repairing the railroads, his other main priority is to extend hard road surfaces and modern lighting.
Asked about the possibility of privatization in future, Mr Gomes says this is not necessary because Lobito is successful. “Porto do Lobito is being managed as a strategic company and I would like to see it
as an autonomous port,” he says.