Luanda — The Cabinet Council under the guidance of the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, analyzed Wednesday the preliminary version of the Administrative Political Division draft law, which aims mainly at clarifying the inter-municipal and inter-provincial border limits.

Communes and districts of the country are expected to be turned into municipalities, the minister of State and head of the Civil Office of the President of the Republic, Adão de Almeida, said Wednesday.

According to the minister, the logic of the change of the administrative political division is to terminate communes and urban districts to create municipalities, with the aim to provide services closer to the citizens.

"It is a big challenge that involves an enormous amount of work, and there is a whole set of issues in this process that will have to be considered", the State minister explained.

He said that the draft law also aims at strengthening competencies of the staff, improving facilities and the budgetary size of these units.

"For these reasons, the proposal that is now still a preliminary one, envisages that there will be a discussion process for it to come into effect only in 2024", the minister said.

Adao de Almeida said that the year 2023 is essentially to make preparation for its implementation, as well as the budget issue to be discussed and that the next steps will be the opening of a larger discussion to broaden the legitimacy of the proposal.

The official underlined that the provincial governments and the municipal administrations will now listen to the populations.

The legal tool aims to reduce local asymmetries through the creation of two new provinces and the termination of urban districts and communes to be turned into municipalities.

Angola currently has 164 municipalities.