Caxito - As a result of the new Political-Administrative Division, in compliance with Presidential Decree nº 268/24 of 29 November, the province of Bengo begins the year 2025 with six new municipalities, which will be added to the current six.
Created in 1980, Bengo held the title of youngest province in the country for 44 years, a title it now loses to the recently created provinces of Icolo and Bengo, Cuando and Moxico Leste.
Currently, the province of Bengo has the municipalities of Ambriz, Bula Atumba, Dande, Dembos, Pango Aluquém and Nambuangongo distributed over a territorial extension of 31,371 square kilometers and a population estimated at around 500 thousand inhabitants.
As of January 2025, Bengo will include the municipalities of Barra do Dande, Panguila, Úcua (previously belonging to the municipality of Dande), Piri (Dembos), Muxaluando and Quicunzo (Nambuangongo).
One of the new features is the change of name of the municipality from Dembos to Quibaxe, which for many years was the municipal seat, as well as the absence of communes in the new districts that were elevated to the category of municipality.
Ambriz, with 18 percent of the province's territory, is the largest municipality in Bengo. It encompasses the municipalities of Bela Vista, Ambriz (headquarters) and Tabi.
The newly created municipalities of Piri and Panguila are the smallest in the province, each occupying just three percent of Bengo's territory.
It is also worth highlighting the fact that Panguila is the only one that transitions from locality/neighborhood to municipality, unlike the others that were communes and were elevated to the category of municipality.
According to the director of the Provincial Government's Studies, Planning and Statistics Office, Belarmino Matos, for the 2025 financial year, the new municipalities that begin operating on the 3rd of January already have a guaranteed starting allocation estimated at around 1.2 billion kz, to support expenses with personnel, goods and services.
In the new municipalities, needs for interventions in administrative infrastructures, protocol residences and social facilities were identified, in order to guarantee a successful transition and an improvement in the quality of services provided to the population.
The vice-governor for Technical Services and Infrastructures of Bengo, Edson da Cruz, explained that the priority in 2025 falls on the six new municipalities that do not have infrastructure, highlighting that these are quite big challenges that the GPB will take into account so that as soon as possible these new regions can be able to function.
“We must create the basic conditions so that they have the minimum operating conditions, especially the municipalities of Úcua and Quicunzo that do not have infrastructure”, he stressed.
According to the Ministry of Territorial Administration (MAT), the basis of the new Political-Administrative Division is the need to reduce regional asymmetries and promote the harmonious development of the territory and the quality of the organization and provision of basic services to citizens. CJ/PA/DOJ
