The government approved the creation of the National Employment Fund in Angola (Funea), which already has 25 billion kwanzas (44.3 million euros) available for this year, to mitigate unemployment mainly among youth.
According to the Economic Commission of the Council of Ministers, which met Tuesday under the guidance of the Angolan President, João Lourenço, the fund will ensure the necessary financial resources for the promotion of public and private initiatives for the insertion of recent graduates and the unemployed into the labor market, as well as the granting of non-refundable incentives to young people who attend professional training courses or actions.
Speaking to the press, the Minister of Public Administration, Labor and Social Security (MAPTSS), Teresa Dias, said that a management contract with a financial institution is foreseen to give substance to the employability projects at a national level.
“We have been monitoring until now that in the various ministerial departments there have been several employability initiatives. What we intend with the creation of this fund is to have concentrated financial resources so that employability initiatives can be effectively structured, implemented, and not repeated by the various state bodies”, she said.
In this sense, continued the minister, all existing funds for employability are now gathered in a single body and under better management. Teresa Dias affirmed that the target public must be the youth, which registers the highest unemployment rate, “about five million inhabitants”, being already available for this year 25 billion kwanzas, which will be funded through extraordinary treasury resources.
“This money is already guaranteed for the end of the year, and every year, we will have, via Treasury resources, resources allocated to the fund”, added the minister. Noting that this is not the only source to finance the Fund, which also has resources to encourage active employment policies.