Africa-Press – Angola. The Vice-President of the Republic considered, in Luanda, that it is imperative for institutions and large public and private companies to absorb the initiatives of startups, embracing them and providing more opportunities for the genius and talent of young Angolans.
Bornito de Sousa spoke yesterday at the opening of the Angola Digital Forum 2022. He said that it is necessary to continue to promote such opportunities, for the emergence, presentation of startups and technological innovation projects, such as the Angotic Forum, for its role in dealing with agendas and themes of digital transformation.
He was hopeful that ADF will also become a reference in the national calendar of events on information technologies and digital transformation in Angola, bringing together the main actors in the sector (the so-called startups) and agents of politics, finance, business, management and academia.
“May this Angola Digital Forum 2022 be the ideal stage for the debate on the best way to shorten the distance between the problems and challenges of our Angola, still unanswered, and the solutions proposed by the Angolan creative genius, using technology and Let’s share good practices and initiatives, whether through events like this one, as well as through literary works, technical and scientific studies”, he urged.
The Vice-President of the Republic highlighted the quantity and quality of initiatives by Angolan startups that aim to propose innovative and, in a certain way, disruptive solutions in the areas of Education and Teaching, Health, Agriculture and Fisheries, Oil and Gas, of Culture, Tourism and Environment and services such as Commerce, Taxation, Restaurants, Transport and Logistics.
“Appy Saúde, Tupuca, Kubinga, BayQi, Paya, Sócia, Muilo, Neurokandengues, Qbinary, Renascer do Saber and Roque Online are some of the projects proposed by Angolan startups that reveal the great talent and creative capacity of young people”, he exemplified.
Bornito de Sousa said that he is attentive to what is happening, stressing that he has been following the training and training of young people in the areas of Telecommunications and Information Technologies, Computer Security and Communication via Satellite, within the framework of the Management Office of the National Space Program.
“Very recently we witnessed the emergence of the Digital.ao incubator, whose main objective is to provide solutions and support for information technology infrastructures for corporate businesses”, he recalled.
According to the Vice-President of the Republic, with the White Paper on Information Technologies serving as an umbrella for the national strategy of digital transformation, the Executive’s entire effort to give greater robustness to the electronic communications infrastructures is accompanied. , universal access to Information and Communication Technologies, through the expansion of Internet access points and the network of media libraries.
He reaffirmed that innovation and digital transformation have a prominent presence in the Vice-President’s official agenda, as an auxiliary body of the President of the Republic, justified by the number of audiences, visits and other occasions created to listen and share with young entrepreneurs linked to startups, their ideas, dreams and projects, in the so-called new technologies.
Digital transformation in Angola
The national director of Telecommunications and Information Technologies, Matias Borges, pointed out that the sector has implemented strategies with the aim of improving the provision of services to citizens and facilitating access to universal service, given the new social demands.
He added that, given the necessary impetus for better citizen satisfaction, technology must promote digital public services, facilitate access to information and expand social participation in the construction of comprehensive policies.
He presented the application of technology in public policies as one of the determining factors for the country’s economic and social development. “ICTs are a bridge to this new management model, it shows a way forward, on the journey, to reduce bureaucracy, modernize, strengthen and simplify the relationship with citizens and companies”, he stressed.
Matias Borges said that, between 2005 and 2020, more than three billion US dollars were invested in the construction of infrastructure. In the same period, according to the national director of Telecommunications and Information Technologies, more than 2,500 sites were installed in the country and he acknowledged that there had been “a considerable investment in the training of national staff”.
He reinforced that the Government’s strategy is to install another three thousand sites. In a first phase, there will be 868 for the expansion of coverage in rural areas.
The Executive, highlighted, recognizes, in an unequivocal way, that ICTs constitute an important element inducing the social development, the economic prosperity of the country, as an engine of the fight against poverty and social exclusion, considering them as catalysts of modernity and of the progress of the Angolan people, based on building an information and knowledge society.
He added that it has been a priority for the Executive to ensure universal access to ICTs and, through them, to Information Society services: “The main indicators of the country’s development show that there has been remarkable recent progress at the social and economic level, to which the favorable evolution of the ICT sector has contributed a lot”.
According to Matias Borges, the stage of the ICT reform, currently being finalized, encompasses the restructuring of the sector in order to adapt it to the new challenges of social and technological development.
He also referred to the development stage, a dynamic for the various business segments, opening up other paradigms and perspectives for the adoption of new technologies, and the freedom stage, dence, solidifying all the gains of the previous phases to assume a leading position in Africa.
Challenges and Opportunities
As challenges and opportunities, Matias Borges presented the development of a robust Telecommunications and Information Technologies infrastructure, capable of serving the entire national territory and the population, at affordable prices, guaranteeing universal access to ICT, integration in a effective, dispersed investments in progress, ensuring the international connections necessary for Angola’s insertion in the global world, and the promotion of efficient management of the radio spectrum.
The vision and strategy for ICT is aimed at continuing the development of the fundamental infrastructures that ensure the economy and the acceleration of digital transformation, as a basic principle for the modernization of the information and knowledge society, as well as for the insertion country, in the co-leadership of Information and Communication Technologies in SADC, he noted.
As a vision for ICT, from Matias Borges’ perspective, the aim is to ensure universal access for the entire Angolan population to the universal electronic communications service, consolidate the liberalization of the various market segments and the combination of efforts of several actors, encouraging the complementarity of investments and the sharing of infrastructures, in parallel with the promotion of broad competition, manage the participation of the State in a balanced way.
He emphasized that, with this, everything should be focused on the action of the role of formulator, guide and promoter of sectoral development policies, promoting the development of adequate broadband infrastructure,
to the necessary socio-economic growth of the country, providing access to digital technology, eradicating poverty and increasing digital literacy.
Andrea Moreno, CEO of PetroShore, a company that has made the PCBSCampus.com platform available since yesterday, April 13, – for Portuguese-speaking African countries, and also for Brazil and Portugal -, admitted at the launch of the project that “there is no natural resources that are worth the volume of the young population residing throughout Africa”, so the main route will be “knowledge and skills”, not only for access to the labor market but also for the formation of a critical spirit.
He reiterated that “the PCBSCampus platform has been online since yesterday, by monthly subscription, with unlimited access to courses in 28 areas of knowledge, 840 courses per year and 70 new courses each month. All courses have international recognition CPD, from UK”.
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