The Institutional Capacity Building Project for Private Sector Development, implemented in Angola from 2014 to 2023, has exceeded expectations, as revealed in the recent Project Completion Report published in January 2024. The growth rate of Angola’s non-oil exports, a key project target, reached 5.9% in December 2022 and 4.9% in June 2023, surpassing the set targets of 2.8% in 2018 and the revised 5% in 2020.
Financed by a USD 24 million loan from the AfDB Group, the project aimed to assist in the growth and diversification of the Angolan economy’s private sector. In addition to the increase in non-oil exports, the project led to a notable surge in business startups in Angola, rising from 2,700 in 2012 to 38,715 in 2022. During the same period, the number of cooperatives with access to services increased from 240 to 12,870. Furthermore, 23,776 farmers, including 3,148 women, engaged in coffee production.
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“This progress is thanks to Project initiatives to promote entrepreneurship and was achieved despite the Angolan economy entering a recession and despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to a significant reduction in the number of start-ups in 2020,” states the Bank report.
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The project also supported the National Institute in support of Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (INAPEM), inclusive formalisation transition under the Informal Economy Reconversion Programme (PREI) in Angola, and reinforced action under the Support for Production, Export Diversification, and Import Substitution (PRODESI) program. Actions included setting up the PRODESI management office, implementing the Agro-PRODESI program (accelerating investment in inclusive and sustainable agro-industry sectors to foster economic growth), and studies of the value chain in key industries — agriculture, forestry and livestock, fisheries and aquaculture, mining and construction, tourism and leisure, textile, clothing, leather, and footwear.
A total of 3,034 agro-entrepreneurs and managers of agricultural cooperatives from all 18 of Angola’s provinces were trained in agribusiness management and in the preparation of agribusiness projects as part of the PRODESI program.