The bank will finance about two-thirds (63.4 percent) of the Angola Youth Employment Project (AYEP or "Projecto Crescer") worth approximately 125 million dollars, with the government contributing 23.3 percent and the private sector contributing the remaining 0.4 percent.
The project aims to train more than 95,000 young people in digital technologies and technical and vocational education and training geared toward "climate-smart agriculture and transport".
The AYEP aims to develop "demand-driven digital, technical, green and entrepreneurial skills, stimulate creativity and innovation among young people, and support startups in accessing innovative financing", and will be implemented between 2025 and 2029, according to the AfDB.
It also aims to improve the operating environment for businesses and help build institutional capacity in the area of public procurement.
Angola has the second fastest population growth in Africa and half of its 35 million inhabitants are young.
The agricultural sector is estimated to employ more than 50 percent of the total workforce (2022 figures), while the transport sector "has the potential to create numerous jobs through its value chains, at a time when the country is increasingly becoming one of Africa's main logistics hubs".
The project will be implemented in eight provinces of the country – Luanda, Huíla, Huambo, Benguela, Cabinda, Cuanza Sul, Bié and Malanje – which constitute high potential agricultural areas, some of which are located along the Lobito Corridor, a railway that connects the port of Lobito on the west coast of Angola to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The AfDB "is committed to supporting Angola in its process of economic diversification. Our recently approved strategy identifies agriculture as the engine of growth in Angola, complemented by investment in sustainable infrastructure", said Pietro Toigo, the Bank Group's resident representative in Angola, quoted in the same statement.
Since the start of its operations in Angola in 1980, the African Development Bank Group has approved a total of more than three billion dollars for development projects in the country.
