"We receive numerous requests from people who want to undertake and request support for business and many of these people do not have entrepreneurship skills, they simply say that they want to do business and that they need support. With this training, placing these young women in academia, they will give them more ability to then put into practice what they intend to do with greater knowledge", pointed out Maria António Luís who, quoted by Rádio Nacional de Angola (RNA), added that "this training will be of great value " for the trainees, in the sense of "having the capacity to undertake the right way".
Speaking at the launching ceremony of the Luanda Entrepreneurship Academy project, the person responsible said that, in the first phase, around 300 people will be covered by the training: "300 people are expected to be selected in the first phase. The figures will come out from from the districts, to the directorates, associations that have already worked with us, so we are creating figures for each of these areas".
In terms of criteria, she clarified that people who have already submitted requests, those who already have a small business but need a little 'push' and associations that are already partners with the academy will be chosen.
"Criteria are those people who, some of them, already have requests here at the municipal level, others are those who already have some initiative, who already have a small business, but who need to leverage more, who need support and those associations who also are already our partners and have already implemented projects at the level of the municipality of Luanda and which we see are associations that really have management capacity", she pointed out, cited by RNA.
To those selected in the future, she asked for commitment: "For the people who are selected, the appeal we want to make is that they commit, that tomorrow they bear fruit, so that this investment we made is not in vain".
The general director of Academia Empreendedor de Luanda, Sandra Batalha, spoke about how the process works. "It will work in conjunction with implementation partners, banking and non-banking financial institutions and, likewise, it will also work with the State's local administration bodies, namely municipalities, because we understand that this is where the entrepreneurs reside", she stated.
"Our arrival at the Municipal Administration of Luanda at the invitation of administrator Milca Caquesse, represents the desire to have municipalities as partners and as the main source of beneficiaries of the program. Within the scope of the 'AEL Mulher' program, we have stratification of female entrepreneurs, we have those who want to be entrepreneurs, we have beginner entrepreneurs, we have experienced ones and we have expanding entrepreneurs", she added, quoted by RNA.
