BAI and CNJ sign memorandum to grant credit to youth

 Luanda - Angolan Investment Bank (BAI) and the National Youth Council (CNJ) Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding with a view to facilitating access to bank credit for entrepreneurs and training for young people.

The CEO of BAI, Luís Filipe Rodrigues Lélis, and the President of the National Youth Council (CNJ), Isaías Kalunga, signed the memorandum.

However, BAI will provide funding worth 10 billion kwanzas to support youth.

In addition to the 10 billion made available under the memorandum, BAI also has available, for Youth, the “Credit Pac Express”, a product that provides for exemption from charging commissions associated with credits, which can be at least five to 20,000 kwanzas year and a rate of 7% and with a maturity of 144 months depending on the size of the project.

Among other objectives, the agreement also aims to expand credit solutions for young people, ensuring that in this way the objective of greater job creation through entrepreneurship is fulfilled.

According to the CEO of BAI, Luís Filipe Rodrigues Lélis, the credit aims to empower small producers, traders, farmers and service providers in related areas, covering the needs of the entire production chain, thus guaranteeing the production and satisfactory commercialization of its products, as well as the maximization of entrepreneurship.

For each project, according to the BAi manager, the maximum funding limit is 5 million kwanzas.

On the occasion, the president of the National Youth Council, Isaías Kalunga, said that the memorandum is part of the incentives of the Angolan Executive, which aims to promote self-employment through entrepreneurship.

Government plans to build more schools and hospitals in Luanda

 Luanda - The provincial governor of Luanda, Manuel Homem, Tuesday announced the construction of more schools and municipal hospitals and medical centres in 2023, as part of the recently approved Integrated Intervention Plan of the Province.

Manuel Homem made the announcement at the year-end greetings ceremony, having highlighted the construction of several structuring projects for next year with the aim to reduce the number of children out of the education system and improve access to health services.

 

The projects for next year also includes continuing to rebuild secondary and tertiary roads, improve public lighting and basic sanitation.

 

According to the governor, despite the adversities and many challenges posed by the capital, "it is possible to win, as there are conditions to achieve the recommended objectives".

 

The governor reiterated the commitment to maintain dialogue with society to better understand the needs of the province and find joint solutions.

 

The ceremony was witnessed by religious leaders, heads of the different branches of the National Police and the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA), artists and civil society leaders.

General Staff stresses improvement in living conditions for troops

 Luanda - The Chief of Staff of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA), Egídio de Sousa Santos, has highlighted the focus on improving living and working conditions of the troops to guarantee the accomplishment of the mission.

In his end of year message, the Army Gen. mentioned some goals set for 2023.

Among the objectives, the FAA Gen. referred to the improvement of the conditions of barracks and the technical-material assurance, overhaul and equipping mainly the national Air Force and Navy. 

Egídio de Sousa Santos also highlighted the commitment of military diplomacy to the peaceful resolution to the armed conflicts in some points of the Great Lakes region. 

He said that in 2022, the Angolan Armed Forces accomplished the mission of guaranteeing the defence of the Homeland and the higher interests of the Nation. 

The chief of staff said that at the level of the sub-regions, in which Angola is also member, the support of the Angolan Armed Forces for some countries in strengthening regional and international cooperation to ensure the security of the region was recorded. 

As for the staff training, the Gen. highlighted the courses provided in schools, institutes and military academies in the country and abroad, some of which, have been successfully completed. 

In his speech, the FAA general thanked those who, with courage, determination, dedication and high professionalism, had accomplished their task.

Created on October 9, 1991, the Angolan Armed Forces represent the symbol of national unity. 

The creation of the Angolan Armed Forces followed the signing of Bicesse Accords (Portugal) in 1991 between the Angolan government and UNITA fighters.

Angolan novel book wins Great Latin American Literary Contest

 Huambo - The work entitled “The Web immigrant and his nonsenses”, by the Angolan writer Nituecheni Africano, pseudonym of Eugénio Afonso Gaspar, won the Novel Category of the 4th edition of the Great Latin American Literary Contest.

With 61 pages, the book, published by the Angola Young Writers Association, was the only one selected on the African continent by the organisers of the Latin American event.

 

The organisers also distinguished the winner of the novel category as one of the best young writers in the world and he is expected to be honoured at the award gala, scheduled for next 10 January, in São Paulo, Brazil.

 

According to ANGOP, the organisers of one of the biggest literature competitions in Latin America requests the presence of the Angolan writer in the awarding gala, because if he is not available, the prize, including trophy, certificate, medal and money, shall be delivered at the Angolan Embassy in Brazil.

 

The contest, based on the voting which began on 20 November this year and ended on 20 December, had the participation of 192 writers from several countries, mainly from Latin America, who competed in several categories.

 

Speaking to ANGOP, after receiving the confirmation from the event´s organisers, Nituecheni Africano said he was pleased with the international recognition because it is an achievement of all Angolans, especially those who voted for the novel, which deals with the daily life of the social media in society.

 

He said that the work tells the story of an Angolan man who is a graduate in Computer Engineering and Telecommunications and who falls in love, virtually, with a young Spanish-Brazilian girl on social media, specifically on Facebook.

 

He added that the young woman invited the Angolan man to live with her in Brazil, and the invitation was accepted, but when he arrived in the Latin American country he realised that the girl does not exist and that it was a fake profile.

 

He recalled that the novel presents some warnings to the youth about the dangers of social media.

 

Nituecheni Africano reiterated that daily life and people´s lack of preparation to avoid believing in everything they see on social media, forgetting that it is essentially a virtual world, were the biggest motivations for the publication of the novel.

 

Born in the southern Province of Huambo, on 12 September 1990, the writer Eugénio Afonso Gaspar graduated in Information Technology and Business Administration from the Technical University of Angola (UTANGA).

 

He is co-founder of the Association of Social Insertion for Former Prisoners (ADISPER) and director-general of the Association of Young Writers of the South.

 

He published, in 2020, the works “O vendedor de pães asmos” (The seller of unleavened bread) and “Prisioneiro do amor” (Prisoner of love).

Luanda governor works to improve macro drainage system

 Luanda – The problem of wastewater and rainwater runoff in Luanda will be solved in the next three years, said Tuesday in this province its governor Manuel Homem.

While talking exclusively to ANGOP, the official informed that there are six structuring projects to make residual waters runoff flow more smoothly.

 

The project aims to transfer the waters of the great basins to the macro-drainage system in order to ease the run-off of water from the municipalities of Viana, Talatona and Kilamba Kiaxi to the sea, either through the Cacuaco area or Benfica.

 

These projects are included in the Integrated Intervention Plan for Luanda for the 2022/2027 period.

 

During the interview, Manuel Homem announced also the construction of over 50 primary schools and the same number of schools for the first cycle of the secondary level in 2023, in order to reduce the number of children who are out of the school system, at this time currently estimated at around 1.5 million children.

 

Luanda´s capital city currently has 4,247 public schools.

 

Regarding health, Manuel Homem said that his staff is working in a process to make available to the citizens more than 51 municipal hospitals taking into account that currently there are only 10 municipal hospitals.

 

Among other issues, the Luanda provincial governor also spoke about the projects related to power and water, basic sanitation, rehabilitation of secondary and tertiary roads, as well as the problem of illegal sale of land.

 

During the interview, Manuel Homem revealed that Luanda recorded a disorganised growth, a fact that makes it impossible to carry out some structural projects, such as rainwater drainage.

 

He considered it imperative to continue materialising the objectives of economic development, particularly in the areas of trade and industry, and said, meanwhile, that there was great demand for investors in the country´s capital, which has nearly 10 million inhabitants.

 

Manuel Gomes da Conceição Homem is the 24th Luanda governor since September this year.

Israel announces arrest of November Jerusalem bombing suspect

Islam Faroukh, a Palestinian mechanical engineer, was arrested a few days after November’s bombing attacks in Jerusalem.

Israeli authorities have announced the arrest of a suspect in the Jerusalem twin bombings that killed two people last month, charging that he identified with the ISIL (ISIS) group.

After a news blackout was lifted, the Shin Bet intelligence service said on Tuesday that the mechanical engineer had already been arrested on November 29.

Islam Faroukh, 26, a Palestinian who lived between Kufr Aqab, a neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem, and Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the Shin Bet domestic security agency and the Israel Police said in a joint statement.

“The Shin Bet, the police and the army have arrested Islam Faroukh, suspected of carrying out the bombing in Jerusalem last month,” it said about the attacks that were carried out at two bus stops.

“The suspect acted on his Salafi-jihadi ideology, identifying with the Daesh organisation and acting alone after a long period of preparation in order to target Israeli citizens in Jerusalem,” the statement added, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL.

The interrogation revealed that Faroukh acted alone and had prepared the crime for a long time, the statement added, and that he had planned further attacks.

A Carlo makeshift submachine gun and an explosive device were found in the possession of Faroukh, the statement said, adding that he would be indicted “in the coming days”.

According to Israeli police and intelligence, Faroukh had built the explosive devices in the occupied West Bank and had also tested explosions in a pit and hidden materials for the construction of further explosive devices there.

On November 23, bombs exploded in quick succession at two bus stops in the Jerusalem area. An Israeli-Canadian teenager and an Israeli aged in his 50s were killed and 13 others wounded in the first bombings to hit the city since 2016.

The attacks came amid a surge in violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

At least 150 Palestinians and 26 Israelis have been killed this year across Israel, the occupied West Bank and Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem.

At least a further 49 Palestinians died during three days of fighting between armed groups in the Gaza Strip and Israel in August.

More than 30 Israelis have also been killed in attacks by Palestinians.

According to United Nations data, 2022 has been the deadliest year for Palestinians since the end of the second Intifada in 2005.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

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Fatal Tanker Explosion at South African Hospital

 A gas tanker crash at the OR Tambo Memorial Hospital on December 24, 2022, has left 18 people dead – among them eight nursing staff, a hospital driver and patients at the emergency unit.

The 32-year-old driver of the tanker, which was transporting gas from Richards Bay to Botswana, was arrested and will appear in court on December 28, 2022, on multiple counts of culpable homicide, negligent causing of an explosion resulting in death, and malicious damage to property.

Several people are also being treated for third-degree burns.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has sent his condolences to the families who lost loved ones.

Source: ALLAFRICA

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