Lubango – Administrative decentralisation process, underway countrywide, has allowed the revenues of Municipalities to shift from AKZ 3 million to AKZ 18 billion in five years, accounting for 500 percent increase.
The data were released by minister of Territory Administration and State Reform Dionísio Manuel da Fonseca on Thursday when addressing an opening session of the Fourth Edition of the Municipalities and Cities Fair of Angola (FMCA) held in Lubango, Huila province.
The minister explained that with the impact of these measures, the local revenues are now impressing, for according to the Finance Ministry, in 2017 the declared total local income was of just over 3.8 million kwanzas and in 2022 local revenues rose to AKZ 18.5 billion.
He went on to say that with the institutionalisation of the FMCA, the State Administration has had a new dynamics which gets special attention from the President of the Republic, as well as from the provincial governors and municipal administrators.
“The numbers are encouraging and stimulate us to continue on the march of municipalisation, surely and firmly, because it will be triumphal, since 3,092 transfer terms from the provincial governments to the municipal administrations, 10 licensing services that stoped being passed by the central organs and started to be issued by local (municipal) ones”, he illustrated.
Such dynamics, he said, has been happening because the Central Organs of the State Administration have embraced the motto “Life is in the municipalities” and have understood that “administrative de-concentration” is resolving the problems of the people, increasing production and guaranteeing food security.
Dionísio Manuel Fonseca also recalled that the event is happening on the African Decentralisation and Local Development Day (10). He then stressed that the municipalities can contribute substantially to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with such process in progress.
On his turn, the Huila Province Governor, Nuno Mahapi, said that Lubango City (the capital) opens its doors to welcome the visitors with enthusiasm, adding that the fair and the forum on municipalities are true reflexes of the diversity and potential of Angolan municipalities.
Nuno Mahapi stressed that the event provides opportunities for sharing experiences and coming in contact with innovative projects. He also seized the occasion to call on the visitors to explore the town the best way possible. MS/jmc
