Day: March 30, 2023

Angola hosts in September, for the first time, the final of the 2022 international business management simulation contest, called Global Management Challenge.

The event will feature more than 30 groups from around the world, including the hosts.

The Global Management Challenge is a strategic management competition for managers and university students. Participants form teams of 5-8 members to allow the development of skills for managers, company staff, among others.

According to the director of operations at Soik Investments, João Pereira, representative of the organizers of the event, it is a great value for Angola to organize one of the biggest simulation competitions in the world.

João Pereira added that, for the 2023 contest, registrations were already taking place across the country, until 31 May of the current

year, stressing that young Angolans could access the website: www.gms.ao. to participate in this edition.

To participate, he continued, it is sufficient that the candidate has completed at least the first university year, in any course, and is 18 years of age.

He said that the objective for that year is to include young people from all over the country, in order to get rid of the idea that only

Luanda participates.

“We have the objective of reaching the whole country, with the broadening of the candidacies. We had the opportunity to take the competition to the provinces of Namibe, Benguela and Huíla. We also intend to reach Huambo”, he stressed.

The winners for the 2023 edition will be announced on the 6th of July of the current year.

Launched in Portugal in 1980, the Global Management Challenge has become the largest international strategy and management competition,

achieving, over the years, an enormous success, becoming an event of

high notoriety and visibility.

In Angola by Soik investments since 2007, it contributes to the

training and development of management skills, for university

students, company staff and Angolan managers.

Source: Angola Press News Agency (APNA)

The Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) and National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) have expressed their readiness to partner with Avocats Sans Frontieres (ASF) France on the protection of Nigerians’ digital rights.

The Chief Executive Officer of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, and Director-General of NITDA, Mallam Kashifu Abdullahi, gave the assurance, on Wednesday, during the launch of e-Rights Project by ASF France in Abuja.

The Nigeria Data Protection Bureau (NDPB) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) also said they would support ASF France, also known as Lawyers Without Borders France, on achieving the objectives of the project.

Prof. Danbatta, represented by Mr Chidi Dingwu, Head of New Media and Information Security, said the project was the latest intervention in promoting the fulfilment of human rights in Nigeria.

“To transform Nigeria into a leading digital economy providing quality life and digital economies for all, it is imperative that we strengthen the people’s confidence in the use of digital technologies, and involvement in the digital economy as stipulated in the soft infrastructure pillar of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS 2020-2030),” he said.

He said this pillar addressed the importance of cybersecurity, digital rights, data protection and privacy frameworks and guidelines that encouraged citizens to embrace the opportunities which digital technologies offer with a view to repositioning the Nigerian Economy.

He said since the digital and other user rights in communications and electronic media are becoming more significant in the society as technology advances, there is the need to protect these rights.

“The event is an acknowledgement of the drive of ASF France to promote the rights of individuals to information, freedom of expression, privacy and data protection as they engage online,” Danbatta said.

He said as the country continued to boost confidence and trust in its digital economy through fruitful deliberation and conversations, all hands must be on deck to safeguard the people’s rights to information, freedom of expression, privacy and data Protection, in the context of digital technologies, especially the Internet.

Abdullahi, also represented by Mr Emmanuel Edet, NITDA’s Head of Legal Unit, said that as at the last statistics, about 84 million Nigerians had access to internet

He said this showed that the number of internet users in the country had grown astronomically, hence, the need for the protection of their digital rights cannot be over-emphasised.

He said there was the need for every stakeholders to collaborate to ensure that digital space was safe.

Abdullahi, who said that the agency was working with NCC and others to develop child rights protection in the digital space, said he aligned totally with e-Rights Project and to ensure that this was adequately and properly used in Nigeria.

The Executive Secretary of NHRC, Mr Anthony Ojukwu, said he was always inclined to associating with any programme aimed at protecting the human rights.

“So there is the need to address the challenges and annex the potentials of digital space,” he said.

Ojukwu also said that there was need for legislation that would help safeguard the digital space.

The Chief Executive Officer of NDPB, Dr Vincent Olatunji, said with the huge population of internet users, effort must be made to safeguard the people’s rights.

Olatunji, who was represented at the event, said as nations across the globe march to the ever increasing tempo of technological advancement in the 4th industrial revolution, the need to safeguard the rights of citizens must be addressed with the keenest sense of equity and justice.

Alexandre Borges-Gomes, Deputy Head of the European Union (EU) Delegation in Nigeria and ECOWAS, said new technologies can contribute significantly to the protection and promotion of human rights and democracy and make public participation easier and more effective.

He, however, said that this could also be abused

“In this context, the e RIGHTS project is strategic because it aims at promoting people’s rights in the digital space in Nigeria; digital rights are all about freedom of expression and privacy and an extension of human rights for the internet age,” he said.

Angela Uzoma-Iwuchukwu, the Country Director of ASF France, said the project was the latest human rights initiative of the organisation funded by the EU.

According to her, it is aimed at enhancing digital rights in Nigeria.

She said the organisation “is canvassing that all the rights that are respected offline to equally be respected online.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event, organised by Lawyers Without Borders France, was in partnership with Centre for Technology and Development (CITAD) and Spaces for Change (S4C).(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

The real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate for the Angolan manufacturing industry registered, in the period from 2018 to 2022, a cumulative 7.7%, with greater emphasis on the last year.

The information was provided this Wednesday by the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, during the opening ceremony of the Industrial Fair’s 5th Edition, which takes place under the motto “It is possible for us to walk together”.

According to the Angolan Head of State, the figure represents a growth of around 6%, surpassing the projection foreseen in the 2022 General State Budget (OGE).

At the exhibition taking place in the Special Economic Zone (ZEE), in the Luanda Municipality of Viana, in Luanda, President João Lourenço stated that over 200 new projects were approved and implemented in the same period.

These are high-impact ventures in the field of manufacturing industry, distributed across the country’s 18 provinces, in several subsectors of activities.

According to the holder of the Executive Power, the action resulted in over ten thousand jobs, with greater emphasis on the food sector, having highlighted that it is a commitment by the Executive to increase industrial production, to ensure self-sufficiency in essential goods of consumption.

The President of the Republic considered it fundamental to continue to stimulate and boost the increase in national production in order to reduce prices, imports and increase exports.

With that, he said, the country will be able to face the competitiveness arising from Angola’s adherence to the protocols of the SADC Free Trade Area, the African Continental and the Tripartite Free Trade Area.

In his speech, João Lourenço called for an organized, systematic and persistent effort to attract national and foreign private investment, in order to place the country on the path of industrialization established by SADC.

For the Angolan statesman, this task is not an easy one, as competition between countries to attract foreign direct investment is quite strong.

It is notorious the effort that the country has been making in recent years in increasing and improving the infrastructure to support industry and the economy as a whole.

Improved electricity supply

In front of exhibitors and businesspeople, President João Lourenço noted that there has been, in recent years, a considerable increase in the supply of electricity from hydroelectric and photovoltaic production sources.

He said that the aforementioned increase consequently reduced the production of electricity from thermal sources (pollutants) and that increase the price of the product (energy) sold to domestic and business consumers.

Within the framework of improving the supply of electricity, President João Lourenço underlined the fact that the Executive is investing in the construction of transport lines.

On the occasion, the Head of State said that it was energy produced in the Lower Kwanza basin, namely in Kapanda, Laúca and Cambambe, as well as in the Soyo Combined Cycle, in Zaire Province.

“All of them are already interconnected, through the National Transport Network, to take this available capacity to the East, Southeast and South of the country”, informed the President of the Republic.

The holder of executive power added that one of the ideas of the project is to connect the national network to the provinces of Lunda Sul, Lunda Norte, Moxico, Cuando Cubango, Huíla, Cunene and Namibe.

Water sector

President João Lourenço announced that important investments are also scheduled in the water sectors, all over the country.

He stated that for Luanda, the country’s main industrial centre, the Bita and Quilonga projects are being implemented which should improve the water supply to the Angolan capital.

As for the current context of the national manufacturing industry, the Angolan statesman said that it offers many challenges, opportunities but also constraints.

Angola continues to mark very precise steps in its process of opening up to the outside world, looking for ways to diversify the economy by substituting imports, promoting exports, reducing the country’s dependence on the oil sector.

Around 230 companies are taking part in the Industrial fair/2023 5th edition, in the Special Economic Zone (ZEE) Luanda-Bengo, until the 1st of April.

The transformation industry, engineering and civil construction, as well as the food industry and agribusiness are some of the sectors present in the sample that has national and foreign exhibitors.

The “Expo-Industria” (Expo Industry) event is the biggest industrial showcase in Angola and aims to stimulate investment in national industry, within the scope of the strategy of diversifying the economy, substituting imports, increasing exports, reducing unemployment and poverty.

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Source: Angola Press News Agency (APNA)

Angolan President João Lourenço inaugurated Wednesday the 5th edition of “Expo-Indústria/2023”, an event to take place from March 29 March to April 1 at Luanda/Bengo Special Economic Zone (ZEE).

The event is expected to be attended by over 230 companies, a figure that is higher than the previous edition held in 2019, when it had a three-year interruption due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 5th edition of Expo-Industry/2023 will bring together, among various sectors, the manufacturing industry, engineering and construction, as well as food industry and agribusiness.

The aim of the event is for industries to increase employment and improve living conditions of the population and leverage new partnerships and businesses.

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Source: Angola Press News Agency (APNA)