Summary: At Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona, Angola’s Minister of Telecoms, IT and Social Communications, Mário Oliveira, tells Tony Poulos about the developments in the country’s telecom sector, including the increase of internet coverage and the ICT talent cultivation supported by Huawei.

The last time the minister attended Mobile World Congress was five years ago in 2019. When asked what he found different this time, he immediately mentions the development of technology.

In his opinion, the new equipment and new technology means that the telecom sector is continuing to improve worldwide. He explains that he is happy to have met some technicians from companies that he met five years ago, as it indicates continuity of people in the telecoms industry. That’s not surprising given that Mr Oliveira has a very strong telecoms engineering background and he feels that network coverage is now crucial for the development of all sectors in Angola.

In the past three years, Angola has added a third mobile operator leading to a massive increase in subscriber numbers. Internet coverage is also improving. According to the regulator, last year there were 11 million new internet connections. This is not only great news for the economy but shows that Angola is following worldwide trends.

Angola has changed rapidly in the past five years, according to Oliviera, particularly with the commercial launch of 5G but this is only operating in some main cities. “We are working hard to cover all the country because it’ll be good also for the industry, for the economy, for agriculture, and for tourism – we’re improving a lot of tourism in Angola,” he says.

For Oliveira, the development of talent in the communications sector in Angola is a priority. The Angola governments has established several ICT talent cultivation projects with private partners, such as the ‘LEAP Digital Talent Development Program’ supported by Huawei. The minister praised the positive effect of such projects and said, “Our youth… are creative, they’re working hard and we also have good partners that have developed the infrastructure with us. And it’s the secret to have good partners and work [with] the youth, creative youth,” he said.

During MWC 2024, on 28 February, the minister also attended and witnessed the signing ceremony of Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) between Angola Telecom and Huawei Angola on strategic cooperation to promote Joint-innovation and talent development in Angola's ICT cooperation. The Minister concluded by expressing his observation of Huawei's continuous development and progress since its entry into Angola in 2001. He emphasised the company's persistence and dedication to providing high-quality solutions and services. In addition, the minister emphasised that the signing of the National Broadband Project by the Ministry of Telecommunications in 2022 represents a crucial milestone for deepening cooperation between the parties. He emphasised that the MoUs signed in the ceremony are putting a spanner in the works with the aim of contributing to the ICT sector in Angola.

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