Luanda, Aug. 6, 2024 (Lusa) - Angola's government launched the Angolan National Employment Fund (FUNEA) on Tuesday, worth $500 million (€462 million), to create and support projects for public and private initiatives that generate employment.
According to the minister of state for economic coordination, José de Lima Massano, Funea will benefit co-operatives through financing or lost fund incentives.
José de Lima Massano stressed that Funea is the financial arm of the National Employment Agenda and was set up to ensure that financial resources should be allocated to promoting employment, including integrating recent graduates and unemployed citizens into the labour market.
Angola's minister for economic coordination stressed that the National Employment Agenda establishes guidelines for coordinated action by the various players, both public and private, in promoting employment. The aim is to reduce the unemployment rate in the national economy, which currently stands at 32.4%.
The minister for public administration, labour and social security (MAPTSS), Teresa Dias, said that the institutionalisation of Funea has at its disposal a set of financial assets, essentially term and demand deposits, aimed at creating public and private projects and initiatives that generate employability and jobs.
Teresa Dias pointed out that, with the launch of this fund, the National Institute for Employment and Vocational Training (Inefop) will submit local employment and labour market insertion contracts for immediate approval by Funea, an initiative in partnership with the Ministry of Territorial Administration, to promote employability through social, community and economically useful work for society.
"For example, a group of five or six young people, aged between 18 and 40, gathered in cooperatives, will be able to sign contracts of 180 to 360 days with municipal and communal administrations to provide local development services, whose activity is economically and socially viable," she said.
According to the minister, in this first phase, five types of cooperatives have been identified, such as solid waste collectors; land rights licence holders; road maintenance; gully cleaning; kerb painting; tree pruning and treatment; collection and treatment of stray animals; solid waste transfer points; gardening and playgrounds.
During the ceremony, an agreement was signed between Inefop and the Ministry of Territorial Administration, which marked the conclusion of the first package of initiatives to be submitted for approval by the fund's strategic committee.
Speaking to the press, Teresa Dias said that the fund will have allocations to be incorporated, depending on the possibilities of the General State Budget, with an expected allocation of $500 million.
"At the moment, it is operational with a capitalisation of six billion kwanzas (€6.3 million), but in the next few days, we will have some more money coming in from ordinary treasury resources so that we will be talking about around six billion kwanzas," she said.
The Angolan official emphasised that the National Social Security Institute is currently managing Funea, the usual manager of resources to support the promotion of employability, and will later be managed by a supervisory committee, which will include representatives of the unions, the ministries of Finance and Planning and other bodies.
"We will then have monitoring and supervision so that we can have transparency and, above all, the good management that we all strive for," she emphasised.
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