The director of the Angolan Industrial and Technological Innovation Institute of Angola (IDIIA), Filomena de Oliveira, stated that there is still a deficit in production organization and the use of products in Angola’s industrial sector.
The statements were made this week to Forbes Lusophone Africa on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the 5th edition of Expo-Industry, which closes this Saturday, April 1.
The event has the participation of about 238 direct and indirect exhibitors in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ), Luanda-Bengo.
According to Filomena de Oliveira, it is necessary to have a better organization by both the producers and industries that should create anticipated contacts to face the needs of their industrial production since, she says, many products are seasonal.
“It is necessary to have this ability to control in advance and to have a value chain that allows the industrial units to operate all year round,” she warned.
For her, Expo-Indústria is representative of what is the reality of industries in Angola, having an industrial park with an installed capacity of which 35% to 40% are being produced.
As soon as the capacity reaches 50%, they will have a considerably higher local and regional supply.
She clarifies that one of the responsibilities of IDIIA is precisely not only to see and support the industrial development, innovation, and technology of Angola but also to help the entrepreneurs create partnerships.
Also, to reduce process bureaucracy, the institution [IDIIA] is a meeting point of institutional support of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce for the sector’s development.
Regarding the manufacture of shoes with the reuse of animal skins, a challenge launched by the President of the Republic, João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, Filomena de Oliveira said that the system of re-industrialization of Angola is a natural process, which now finds support in Planapecuária.
According to her, they will have a better organization concerning meat production and hence have several products that can and should be reused to enhance new industries.
“One of them is exactly the fur and shoe industry, but there are other industries that derive from these, such as fertilizers that can be made from bones,” she pointed out.
She also said that a whole range of products could be used in micro-enterprises, such as treating cattle horns, or even the hides can produce cushions and carpets.
Filomena de Oliveira considered, on the other hand, that the integration of Angola in the African Continental Free Trade Area opens an excellent opportunity to be able to create regional or continental value chains, thus allowing the industry to be fed not only with the slaughterhouses of the country but also with those of Namibia and Zambia and vice versa.
“This is a great opportunity we have, and we must help our entrepreneurs to be bolder in thinking about regional and local investment,” she noted.
Filomena explained that the Ministry of Industry and Commerce has, through IDIIA, the management of industrial poles and rural industrial parks, “which can also always work towards creating specific poles or parks for different parts of the industry.”
With information from Forbes