Africa-Press – Angola. The Youth Business Council of Angola (CEJA) foresees, for June this year, the launch of the Credit Cooperative for Small Business Owners (COPEM), with the aim of supporting the entrepreneurial class in the country.
The information was provided, by the president of CEJA, Adilson Neto, on the occasion of the balance session of the council’s activities carried out in the last two years.
The process of launching the cooperative is already in the final stretch, and according to the representative, similar to other cooperatives, this will also be privately managed, as reflected in the Cooperative Law in force in the country.
Adilson Neto also clarified that in the act of granting funding, the young beneficiaries will be accompanied by a contract manager provided by the CEJA, who will monitor the execution of the program, in order to reduce the risk of inappetence in what is the return of the capital.
“An entrepreneur becomes mature after two or three years of project execution, and knowing the commercial sector better, the possibility of bankruptcy is very low, hence the usefulness of the transfer of the manager”, he stressed.
For the manager, mentors to accompany the beneficiaries are already being trained, and come from several universities, from public and private, in addition to professional training centers, experts in business administration and management, economics and other specialties.
Partnerships signed
According to advanced data, the CEJA currently has more than 20 social partners, a number that tends to grow significantly, since the partnerships are linked to the productive sector, professional training centers, agriculture, aquaculture, beekeeping, fisheries and others. .
Soon, he said, a new partnership is scheduled with two commercial banks, with which it will be possible to obtain two lines of credit, which will serve as inputs for the youth, in terms of the development of projects linked to the productive sector.
Another important aspect, he considered, is the issue of training entrepreneurs, a mandatory condition for young people to have access to microcredit.
“Young people must learn and understand what they really want, their rights and obligations, in order to trace a safe path to investment”, he stressed.
Ongoing projects
The CEJA, within its action plan (2021-2022), has five projects in its portfolio, some of which are already underway, such as the “Minha Estrada, Meu Sustento”, “Mais Empreendedorismo Angola” and the “Path of the Future”.
The first project aims to give young people the opportunity to find their first job, through the Moto Taxi service. In a first phase, this program benefited a total of 53 young people in the centrality of Kilamba and in the adjacent neighbourhoods.
The second, carried out through workshops, lectures, training cycles, has the objective of structuring a training program for young people in the technical and professional field, with the right to various kits. While in the scope of the third, the institution has already trained more than two thousand young people, who will now spread entrepreneurship in the communities where they are inserted.
CEJA currently controls over two thousand members, has 15 facilities in six provinces and 33 municipalities. By the end of the current year, the goal is to reach 18 provinces. Altogether, a cooperative can have up to 400 members, linked to carpentry, industrial cold, air conditioning, fisheries, agriculture, beekeeping, gardening and others.
At the moment, the institution has several training centres, with emphasis on the Ramiros school, with a capacity of up to 40 trainees and in the center of the Urbano do Quenguela district, the latter with the greatest capacity, as it houses various technical services.
CEJA has, within the scope of its business efforts, also supported women with the capacity to undertake, generate employment and income for families.
To implement the bet, a partnership was entered into with the Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Angola (AMEIA), which have carried out training cycles on entrepreneurship for young women, which has already enabled the training of more than 700 women, of which 550 are under 25 years old. .
“They received training in the areas of catering, commerce, provision of services and in the direct sale of household items”, he concluded.
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