Benguela — The historic visit of the President of the United States of America (USA), Joe Biden, with a great focus on the Lobito Corridor, marked the year 2024 in a special way in the province of Benguela.
To the sound of the drumming and folkloric dances of the Bismas das Acácias, the President of the world's largest economic power landed at Catumbela International Airport 'Paulo Teixeira Jorge', on December 4, aboard the mythical 'Air Force One', under the watchful eye of the President of the Republic, João Lourenço.
In the province of Benguela, where more than three million inhabitants live, Joe Biden, at the end of his term in the White House, completed the last stage of his 72-hour state visit to Angola, the first by a US head of state to our country.
The US President's tour to Benguela, from where, hours later, he left for his country, included the Multilateral Summit on the Lobito Corridor, which brought together his counterparts from Angola, João Lourenço, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Félix Tshisekedi, and Zambia, Hakainde Hichilema, as well as the Vice President of Tanzania, Philip Mpango.
At stake is a mega railway project that connects Angola to the mining areas of the DRC and Zambia, with the US being an important partner for the revitalisation of this logistics infrastructure.
By the way, the main result of this international summit was Joe Biden's announcement of an increase in US investment for the Lobito Corridor, of another 600 million dollars.
In fact, international investment in the Lobito Corridor has already exceeded six billion dollars (5.7 billion euros), including the private sector, regional development banks and G7 partners.
In addition, the American head of state visited the Port of Lobito, where he witnessed the arrival of a Lobito Atlantic Railway (LAR) freight train, with a shipment of copper from the DRC, bound for New Orleans, United States of America.
Joe Biden's visit to Benguela signaled the strategic importance of the Lobito Corridor, which transcends Angolan borders, since, through the connection to Zambia, it is possible to reach the city of Beira, in Mozambique, and Dar-es-Salaam, in Tanzania, next to the Indian Ocean, facilitating trade in the SADC region.
Another important fact of the year about to end was the visit of the Prime Minister of Portugal, Luís Montenegro, to the province of Benguela, where he highlighted the contribution of his country's businessmen in the revitalization of the gigantic logistics project of the Lobito Corridor, with emphasis on Mota-Engil, which is part of the LAR consortium.
Before putting the Benguela Railway (CFB) locomotive to whistle, in a symbolic gesture, the Portuguese official visited the works of the future facilities of the Consulate General in Benguela, whose inauguration is scheduled for 2025, in a value of two million and 94 thousand euros.
The third diplomatic representation built from scratch in the last 15 years by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Portugal, the work was inspired by modern Portuguese architecture and is being carried out by the construction company Casais, at a time when users who apply for visas to Portugal, for tourism, study or health reasons, are cared for in temporary facilities.
The area of jurisdiction of the Consulate General of Portugal in Benguela, one of the few career in the South of Angola, covers the provinces of Cuanza-Sul, Huambo, Bié, Huíla, Cunene, Namibe, Cuando and Cubango.
International flights are already a reality
The year was also marked by the granting by the National Civil Aviation Authority (ANAC) of the international certificate to Catumbela Airport, also known as Paulo Teixeira Jorge, to finally operate international cargo and passenger flights, 12 years after it was inaugurated.
And the first flight, with 35 passengers, bound for Namibia, took off on 21 December, under the aegis of the airline Fly Angola, which foresees, from January, three weekly flights, with an average price of 170,000 kwanzas on the Benguela/Windhoek route.
With a projected capacity of 2.2 million passengers per year, the internationalization of Paulo Teixeira Jorge Airport will have a positive impact on the local and national economy, as it will increase cargo transport capacity, facilitating trade and export of Angolan products.
The improvement in the conditions of the airport infrastructure and the increase in demand will attract more airlines, boosting the tourism and services sector in the province of Benguela and in the Central South region of the country.
Road infrastructure
The year was also marked with the announcement of the works, from 2025, of the future Benguela outer ring road, budgeted at US$517 million, whose project has already been approved by the President of the Republic, for the construction of a road that will bypass the cities of Benguela, Catumbela and Lobito.
For this reason, road freight transport entrepreneurs highlight the advantages of the construction of the Benguela outer ring road, to improve the traffic conditions of goods trucks bound for the North of the country.
According to Presidential Order No. 155/24, of 16 July, the execution of the project, to relieve traffic in the access to the aforementioned cities, was entrusted to the companies responsible for the emergency works of the integrated infrastructures of the Benguela coast, including Omatapalo.
During this year, the continuity of the works of the Integrated Infrastructure Program of the municipalities on the coast of Benguela province was also highlighted, with a focus on improving communication routes, facilitating not only road traffic, but also promoting integration and access to essential services.
In this context, the year 2024 was marked with the opening to traffic of the Brasil and 31 de Janeiro avenues, respectively, in the cities of Lobito and Benguela, completely renovated, improving car circulation and the satisfaction of passers-by.
Productive sector reinvents itself
The second largest industrial park in the country, after Luanda, with more than 840 manufacturing units, most of them in the food sector, the province of Benguela witnessed in 2024 the start of construction of the first caustic soda, sodium hypochlorite and hydrochloric acid factory in Angola.
The unit has a production capacity projected for more than three thousand tons per month. These are products for national industrial use of pulp and paper, textile, petrochemical, food, steel and metallurgy, pharmaceutical production, water treatment and sewage.
An initiative of the Adérito Areias Group (AA), the construction of the factory will be completed within 18 months, and is a financing of around 27.3 million euros, of which 24.8 million euros will be supported by the credit line of Deutsche Bank of Germany.
In addition, the promoter of the project, which expects to create 45 direct jobs and about a thousand indirect jobs, also spent more than US$3 million using its own funds.
On January 25, the province of Benguela embraced the challenge of producing, on an experimental basis, upland rice, in an area of 20 hectares of arable land, with a drip irrigation system, aiming to promote this crop in the region.
The pilot initiative is from the Nelson Rodrigues Agricultural Farm, in the commune of Dombe Grande, and the harvest is almost ready. It comes at a time when the Angolan Government has defined large-scale rice production as the flag of the 2023-2024 agricultural campaign, within the scope of the National Strategy for Food and Nutrition Security.
Also in the productive field, the project to promote wheat production, by the Angolan company Royal Empire, in an initial investment of 1.5 billion kwanzas, financed by the Agrarian Development Support Fund (FADA) and the Credit Guarantee Fund (FGC), is beginning to become a reality.
The project is being developed on more than 20,000 hectares of arable land, in the commune of Chicuma, municipality of Ganda, and is expected to reach, on the one hand, a peak of 73,000 tons in four years and, on the other hand, to benefit 3,500 peasant families, of which 2,500 have already registered.
Benguela International Fair
On the 22nd and 26th of May, the Ombaka National Stadium hosted the 13th edition of the Benguela International Fair (FIB), which brought together, in an area of approximately 12,000 square meters, 393 direct and indirect participants, an increase of about 15 percent in the number of exhibitors compared to 2023.
Among the sectors that stood out the most are industry, commerce, distribution, communication and marketing, construction, education, banking, insurance services and energy and water.
As far as innovation is concerned, Nova Fumetal, a metalworking company based in Benguela, presented at the event the first 100% national cassava peeling machine, already available on the market.
With the capacity to peel 500 tubers in 30 minutes, this first cassava peeling machine was manufactured in Angola, as a result of the resilience and affirmation of the national business community.
Family farming and technology hand in hand
Among the highlights of the year is also the agreement between Africell and the Grupo Carrinho, which promises the digital transformation of family farming in Angola and the financial inclusion of rural producers along the Lobito Corridor.
With an initial duration of one year, this partnership between Africell and Grupo Carrinho is structured in four main axes, which cover key sectors of the Angolan economy, such as agriculture, trade, distribution and mobility.
The agricultural transformation program, carried out by Carrinho Agri, already benefits 150 thousand family producers, thus allowing them to transition from subsistence agriculture to agribusiness.
At the formalization ceremony of these agreements, the director for Partnerships of the Africell Group, Robert Rollman, believes that the multisectoral partnership between the two companies will leverage the Angolan economy and bring benefits along the Lobito Corridor.
Meanwhile, the general director of the digital platform Afrimoney, Kátia da Conceição, is optimistic about the financial inclusion of small family producers in rural areas, as they already work with Carrinho Agri.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Advances in hospitality and tourism
In the hotel sector, with 32 existing hotels, 100 guesthouses and guesthouses, in addition to many other hostels and complementary accommodation developments - lodges and resorts - Benguela now has a new accommodation unit, called Flow Hotel, in an initiative of the company OnTour, Gestão de Serviços Hoteleiros, of the Omatapalo Group.
Located six kilometers from the center of the city of Benguela and nine km from Catumbela International Airport, the Flow Hotel offers 132 rooms and the development has created 80 direct jobs and 140 indirect jobs.
It also has a conference room with capacity for 200 people, a coworking space and a business center, suitable for meetings or for support on business trips.
Among the highlights of the year in this area is the opening in the Restinga area of the new residential 'BelleVue', with 22 apartments T2, T3 and T4. The project created 283 direct jobs and 707 indirect jobs.
Belonging to the Jembas Technical Assistance (JAT) group, the hotel unit was built in five years by the contractor Casais Angola. Overlooking the sea and Lobito Bay, the BelleVue residential has seven floors above ground, each with 800 square meters, divided into four apartments.
To close the year on a high note, on December 22, the cruise ship Seabourn Sojourn docked at the Port of Lobito, with 215 tourists of various nationalities on board. Flying the Spanish flag, the ship departed from Barcelona, Spain, passing through Cape Verde, Ghana, São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola and South Africa.
This substantial increase in the number of tourists was due to the implementation of Presidential Decree 189/23, which exempts citizens of 98 countries who want to visit Angola from obtaining tourist visas, for a period of up to 30 days per entry and up to 90 days per year.
On the route of cultural exchange between Angola and Brazil, the province of Benguela received, in July, eight Brazilian tourists, being the fourth group of South American tourists to visit this region of the central coast of the country, since 2019.
This exchange is promoted by Angola House in São Paulo and, in five years, has brought 90 tourists from Brazil to Angola, in order to strengthen the closest cultural ties between the two nations. JH/CRB/SR/DOJ
