Africa-Press – Cape verde. The Municipal Assembly (AM) of Santa Catarina approved this Thursday the contracting of a bank loan worth 70 thousand contos for some municipal works, with emphasis on the rehabilitation and requalification of the new market in Achada Riba. The bank loan proposal was approved with favorable votes from the 11 elected members of the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV, the party that manages the council) and one from the independent group Santa Catarina Sempre e Acima de Tudo (S-SAT, opposition), nine abstentions from the Movement for Democracy (MpD, opposition). Speaking to Inforpress, the president of the Municipal Council of Santa Catarina, Armindo Freitas, recalled that this bank loan of 70 thousand contos was already included in the municipality’s budget for 2025, which amounts to one million contos, approved in February in an extraordinary session of the AM. Of this amount, he said that 25 thousand contos will be earmarked for financing the first phase of the rehabilitation and requalification of the new market, which includes roofing and exterior improvements, giving this space an additional floor. He also added that the council’s treasury will provide 5 thousand contos for roofing and exterior improvements. According to the mayor, this first phase of the market project, which has already been drawn up, includes interventions on the ground floor, which include the installation of benches, painting and all the improvements, budgeted at around 15 thousand contos, the financing of which has already been submitted to the Joint United Nations Programme. Around 19 thousand contos are also expected for the grassing of the Rincão field, around 7 thousand contos for the first phase of the rehabilitation work on the Assomada multipurpose hall, which includes the installation of a floating floor, internal and external renovation, and also painting, the projects for which are already ready. The remaining funds from this 70,000 contos loan, according to Armindo Freitas, will be used to build squares, plazas, and streets in various neighborhoods in the city of Assomada, and to renovate some municipal roads in other locations in this municipality of Santiago.
“All of these investments are aimed at increasing the municipality’s competitiveness. It is a bank loan for a reasonable amount and we already have some proposals from banks, and the monthly debt burden is within our payment capacity,” Freitas stated.
He also added that the municipal team he leads will call a session of the Municipal Assembly to present to the elected municipal representatives and residents the details of all the projects to be financed with this 70,000 contos loan.
In this first ordinary session of the Santa Catarina Municipal Assembly for the 2024-2028 term, the elected municipal representatives, among several deliberations, unanimously approved the proposal to waive interest and debts of the Single Property Tax (IUP) on real estate and support measures for traders and drivers.
In the session, the elected municipal representatives assessed the municipality’s management account for 2024, the year in which the MpD supported the council, whose “execution rate is less than 50 percent (%)”.
In this regard, the mayor of Santa Catarina told Inforpress that the document will be sent to the Court of Auditors (TC), the entity responsible for making its judgment.
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