Africa-Press – Angola. João Lourenço starts today a working visit to the province of Cuando Cubango, to evaluate the execution of the local infrastructures, including the social and economic projects in progress, in the context of improving the living conditions of the citizens.
On the first day, the mission’s program includes a meeting of the Local Governance Council, a consultation body of the Head of State that allows for a thorough evaluation of the major projects underway in the country, especially infrastructure such as roads, bridges, schools, hospitals and social impact plans such as those related to fighting hunger, poverty and the effects of drought.
In order to participate in that meeting, the governors of the different provinces and a group of ministers are already in the city of Menongue who attend to the sectors that are responsible for large social projects and the construction of infrastructures.
The second and last day of the President’s visit, Friday (11), will be entirely dedicated to the province of Cuando Cubango, with a meeting scheduled with the provincial government to analyze the state of development of the region in the most different areas. The President of the Republic returns to Luanda on Friday afternoon.
On Friday, the last day in Cuando Cubango, the Head of State traveled to the commune of Missombo, 18 kilometers from the city of Menongue, to visit the Larviculture and Fattening Center, a GESTERRA project, created in 2018, with the sole objective of producing tilapia, fish feed and selling fingerlings (little fish for farming).
Speaking to Jornal de Angola, the representative of GESTERRA in Cuando Cubango, Joelson Gonçalves, indicated that the center started producing in 2019, but sales of tilapia only started in September last year.
With an installed production capacity of 500 tons of tilapia per year and 2,000 kilograms of feed per day, the center operates only eight hours a day. Joelson Magalhães informed that the feed is made, above all, based on soy and corn, products easily acquired in the locality of Samba Lucala, in the province of Cuanza-Norte.
He indicated that the center has 140 tonnes of tilapia available, for street sales or to local wholesalers and retailers and the neighboring provinces of Bié and Huambo. “We have received many requests from customers in Cuito and Huambo. But to preserve the quality of our product, we deliver through refrigerated cars,” he said.
A kilogram of tilapia is sold at 1,200 kwanzas for wholesalers and 1,450 kwanzas for retailers, while feed costs 1,180 kwanzas.
With the visit of the President of the Republic to the undertaking, the representative of GESTERRA said that he believes in a greater dissemination of the centre’s activity, also stressing that it is the recognition of the company’s effort and commitment, in favor of the fight against hunger and poverty in the region.
Joelson Gonçalves pointed out that the Missombo Larviculture Center opted for the sale of feed to encourage entrepreneurship in the field of tilapia production. “There are many citizens who simply stop producing tilapia due to lack of feed, or claiming it is too expensive in the markets,” he lamented.
expectant citizens
The visit of the President of the Republic to Cuando Cubango is arousing interest and generating expectations from citizens. In a round carried out by Jornal de Angola in several streets of the city of Menongue and surroundings, the inhabitants expressed their joy at the proximity governance method, adopted by João Lourenço, since he took over the country’s destiny.
“The President of the Republic does it very well from time to time to leave his office, in Cidade Alta, to meet the populations in the provinces, to learn about the difficulties that afflict them”, said Isabel Domingas, 23, a student at PUNIV, in the city of Menongue.
He said that many things in Cuando Cubango had improved, but underlined the need for the country’s leaders to pay greater attention to aspects related to medical and drug assistance to the populations and to create more jobs to stop unemployment, delinquency and other ills.
For his part, civil servant Ismael Domingos also defended the creation of more jobs, the opening of roadways that connect the capital to the remaining eight municipalities, to enable the movement of people and goods.
For the provincial secretary of the PRS, Samuel Messenes, it is expected that the visit will motivate and mobilize a greater number of investors for Cuando Cubango, as well as boost the construction of social infrastructures, highlighting the centrality, reference hospitals in the municipalities, secondary and university schools.
The politician considered it necessary to create more courses at the Cuito Cuanavale University, taking into account that the existing ones are only geared towards pedagogical training.
Peasant Dulce Catarina, from Cuatir, 40 kilometers from Menongue, applauded the initiative of the Head of State. She said that she hopes that the President of the Republic, during the visit, will download guidelines for local governments to make a commitment to provide greater support to family farmers, with seeds and other agricultural materials.
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