Angola’s northern Uige province is on the track of development as a result of several projects that have been implemented in the region to improve the social conditions of the population, said the local governor José Carvalho da Rocha.
José da Rocha was speaking at a meeting of the Council of Local Governance, chaired by President João Lourenço, attended by governors from the country’s 18 provinces and heads of ministerial departments.
Taking stock of the activities and the plan of the social projects in Uige, the governor stressed that the Integrated Plan for Intervention in Municipalities (PIIM) in the province has been revolutionising the lives of citizens.
As example, he referred to the new schools, new equipment and others related to health and the new jobs.
Delivering his speech, in the presence of the head of State, he said that the region contains 89 PIIM projects, spread across 17 budget units, 164 in the education sector, one in higher education, eight in health, six for water and 10 for roads.
On the education sector, he said that, this school year, 632,464 children were enrolled, which represents an increase of 6.5 percent against the previous school year.
He said, however, that 49,624 pupils were still outside the education system.
The education sector in the province controls 16,069 staff, of whom 15,256 are teachers and 810 are employees at different levels of teaching.
This number of students is housed in 7,791 classrooms, mostly in public education.
The governor said the number of existing classrooms, around 2,291 are of precarious construction, which represents 29 percent, and 674 are still improvised classrooms.
According to him, in order to solve these problems, 549 schools at different levels of education need to be built.
In terms of higher education, the province has four higher education institutions, two public and two private.
Health
The local governor said that the region has 3,051 health professionals, including 196 doctors and 1777 nurses.
He also said that the hospital network comprises 370 hospitals, of which one general hospital, 11 municipal hospitals, two maternity hospitals, two specialised centres, 264 health posts and 88 health centres, which represented a hospitalisation capacity of 1089 beds.
More health professionals
Carvalho da Rocha pointed out the hiring, in the province, of 530 health professionals in different categories, promising the improvement of medical assistance to the population with the construction of the Uige General Hospital, which will provide more medical assistance to the population.
Infrastructures
The region has a road network of 2,605 kilometres and of these the rehabilitation of 1,114 kilometres of road has been registered, which has been enabling the connection of the province’s headquarters with the different municipalities.
According to the governor, at the moment the most glaring actions in this sector are the connections to the municipalities of Milunga, Bembe and Buengas.
Energy and water the big challenge
Of the 16 municipalities that make up the province, only three have conventional energy. The governor said that this is the biggest challenge that he proposes to bring energy to all the municipalities.
With 16 municipalities, the northern Uige province hás the Agriculture and trade as the main sectors of activity. DC/AL/DAN/NIC
Source: Angola Press News Agency (APNA)