The Angolan government on Tuesday August 6 launched the Angolan National Employment Fund (FUNEA), worth $500 million (€462 million), to create and support public and private initiative projects that generate employment.
According to the Minister of State for Economic Coordination, José de Lima Massano, FUNEA will benefit cooperatives through financing or lost fund incentives.
José de Lima Massano stressed that FUNEA is the financial arm of the National Employment Agenda and was set up with the aim of guaranteeing the allocation of financial resources to promote employment, including the integration of recent graduates and unemployed citizens into the labor market.
The Angolan official stressed that the National Employment Agenda sets out the guidelines for coordinated action by the various players, both public and private, in the field of promoting employment, with a view to reducing the unemployment rate in the national economy, which currently stands at 32.4%.
For her part, the Minister of Public Administration, Labor and Social Security (MAPTSS), Teresa Dias, said that the institutionalization of FUNEA has at its disposal a set of financial assets, essentially term and demand deposits, aimed at creating public and private projects and initiatives that generate employability and jobs.
Teresa Dias pointed out that, with the launch of this fund, the National Institute for Employment and Vocational Training (Inefop) will submit local employment and labor market insertion contracts for immediate approval by FUNEA, an initiative in partnership with the Ministry of Territorial Administration, which aims to promote employability through social, community and economically useful work for society.
“By way of example, a group of five or six young people, aged between 18 and 40, gathered in cooperatives, will be able to sign contracts of 180 to 360 days with municipal and communal administrations, to provide local development services, whose activity is economically and socially viable,” she said.