"Initially, we had an annual production capacity of 500 thousand prepaid low voltage and industrial meters, all of them with STS certification and with the management system through our Data and Call Center - we are talking about technical support and management of complaints and breakdowns. For this first phase, we will produce 300 electric meters and 200,000 water meters", said the official, in an interview with Jornal de Angola.
According to Frederico Makilanda, the initiative was born more than four years ago, when they realized "the needs that energy and water distribution companies faced for the acquisition of the aforementioned pre-paid devices, which serve as an effective measurement and control of what is consumed".
Faced with this scenario, they wanted to come up with "a solution to reduce the import of these important devices", he said, adding that "after a thorough market study, through an investment made, we obtained land in the Special Economic Zone, where we built two for production and start serving the country".
And so Hengye Electronics - Indústria S.A. was born, which, according to the official, belongs to the Zhejiang Hengye Electronics Group in China. However, it is a company incorporated under Angolan law, "with mixed capital (Chinese and Angolan), constituted with an investment of around 20 million from Angola", he said.
In the interview with Jornal de Angola, the company's CEO added that the factory has been in operation since the first quarter of this year and that it is "ready to meet the requests of companies in the sector".
About the team, the official mentioned that the factory has "more than 500 Angolan employees", of which "35 percent are women with an average age between 25 and 30 years".
Regarding a possible expansion of the company, Frederico Makilanda considered that this depends on the needs of the market: "This will depend a lot on the needs of the market, I am talking about the request of companies in the sector. to provide quality technical support for our devices".
He also told Jornal de Angola that the Zhejiang Hengye Electronics group has "in its portfolio among five other projects to build factories across the country and in various areas of the national economy, which will generate more than 4,000 direct jobs and as many indirect ones", adding that they are "in the process of acquiring a license for the exploitation of wood with the Ministry of Agriculture" and that, if all goes well, "some of these projects may be launched later this year".
