PROVINCE

NORTH FROM LUANDA Angola’s northwest has become more easily accessible from the capital, thanks to a newly-rebuilt highway. Universo looks at the broad range of exciting investment and travel opportunities in the region

22 SONANGOL UNIVERSO JUNE 2014 23 Andreas Linke, courtesy of Gauff Shutterstock PROVINCE Getty Images PROVINCE Andreas Linke, courtesy of Gauff

uanda now enjoys continuous direct overland access to M’banza Kongo in Zaire province, close to the Democratic Republic of the LCongo (DRC) border. The highway north linking Luanda to the province completes the last major artery from the capital. On its way, the 340km road penetrates a promising area of investment and tourist options. Once clear of the intensely busy port and Sonils offshore service area at Luanda, the road soon turns into a six-lane- wide avenue as far as Cacuaco on the edge of the densely-packed urban area. From there it passes through sparsely populated countryside to Caxito, Ambriz and Nzeto before turning inland and on to M’banza Kongo. A variant from Nzeto continues along the coast to the important oil industry Pope John Paul II visited Angola in 1992 The Mouse of Mussera centre of Soyo. This crucial Nzeto–Soyo 250km highway is still under construction.

M’banza Kongo heritage commemorating Kongo king Dom António tonnes of crops in 2013, including cassava, important city and has recently attracted M’banza Kongo is the administrative I there in September 2012. groundnuts, maize, beans, bananas, sweet substantial new investment. M’banza Kongo is capital of Zaire province. It also has strong Apart from showcasing its ruins, the city potatoes, citrus fruits and pineapples. Soyo hosts the landward terminal for ambitions to develop its tourist industry is developing a museum to tell the Kongo Zaire’s highland areas also have most of the oil and gas piped from Angola’s the administrative based on its history as home to the kings of kings’ story. Tourists can also visit Sunguilua excellent timber products potential as offshore fields. It is also where a $10 billion the Kongo. To this end it has been seeking on the River Zaire, where the kings were the area is part of the Congo rainforest. Angola LNG plant is now producing capital of Zaire UNESCO World Heritage Site status ceremonially washed before burial. Angola’s Forestry Development Institute liquefied natural gas, LPG, butane and since 2007. The Angolan government has The city also has great significance for (IDF) has tree nurseries near M’banza condensate for sale at home and abroad. province. designated it a ‘National Cultural Heritage Angola’s main religion, Catholicism. In Kongo at N’kunga a Paza and at Nkiende The environmentally friendly plant uses City’ in preparation for its UNESCO 1992, Pope John Paul II visited the ruins to ensure sustainability. gas formerly burned off as a waste product. It also has strong status bid with Minister of Culture Rosa of M’banza Kongo’s Sé Cathedral. Built The 225km Nzeto–M’banza Kongo The city is also home to major oil Maria Martins da Cruz e Silva guiding in 1491, the cathedral was the first below highway, recently completed by German industry base, Kwanda. Here oil companies ambitions to the process. the equator. firm Gauff Engineering, goes through Texaco, BP, Fina and Sonangol and service Portuguese explorers first made formal Thanks purely to its natural beauty, the Tomboco, where there is a sawmill and companies Bechtel, Halliburton and develop its tourist contact with African royalty at M’banza M’brige waterfalls at Kuimba, 50km east of carpentry industry fed by timber cut in the Petromar operate support facilities and Kongo in 1483. The city now aims to recover M’banza Kongo, is another tourist attraction. Kuimba area. shipyards. This cluster of service companies industry based on part of its past greatness by rebuilding Apart from its political and historic means Soyo is well placed for vocational and modernising its infrastructure. In importance, M’banza Kongo has promising Soyo: investment magnet training and one speciality developed so its history as home recognition of M’banza Kongo’s importance agribusiness potential, thanks to its Lying at the mouth of the mighty River far is metalworking. to Angola, President José Eduardo dos location at the edge of Angola’s plateau. Zaire some 440km from Luanda, Soyo is Recently GLS Oil & Gas, a joint venture to the kings of Santos laid the first stone for a monument Farms around the city produced 170,000 northwest Angola’s economically most led by General Electric, announced a $175 the Kongo

Timber is plentiful in Zaire province Caxito is famous for its bananas

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million investment in a factory making nautical activities such as sailing and sports undersea oil and gas equipment at Soyo. fishing on the Zaire estuary. The city boasts Angola’s northwest Soyo has also attracted a $500 million the largest concentration of restaurants investment for a gas-fired generation unit. and hotels in Zaire province. CABINDA The plant is scheduled to supply 400MW River cruises are also available; Pedra DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO of much-needed energy to the main towns do Feitiço – a sacred site – and Ponta do in Zaire and Luanda provinces in 2016, Padrão, the exact spot where Portuguese Congo (Zaire) River providing a welcome boost to manufacturing explorer Diogo Cão landed in 1482, are Pedra do Feitiço and food processing in the region. within easy reach of Soyo. Porto Pinda, the River cruises Mbrige Maquela Oil, gas and their associated scene of the first Christian baptism south of Kuimba Falls do Zombo infrastructure are the foundation for a the equator and a former slave export point Soyo Mavoio Copper mining number of industrial projects earmarked for is also tourist destinations near Soyo. M’banza kongo region Proposed Soyo. These include plans for an oil refinery oil renery Soyo-N’zeto Highway National heritage site under construction and a fertiliser plant using ammonia and New links ZAIRE urea derived from hydrocarbons. There Despite the undoubted economic are also projects for the production of importance of Soyo, only now is it in the methanol, pesticides, ethylene, polymers, process of gaining good overland road Kimbriz beach Tourism Farming (eggs, maize, beans, cassava, phosphoric acid, and tyre retreading and access. Freight transport has depended on banana, pineapple, groundnuts) steel for construction. the sea and air for many years. However, the Tomboco ANGOLA Soyo is not all work, and the highly high-tech oil industry with many expatriate skilled workforce also has leisure time specialists is well served by the newly- ATLANTIC options. There are nature reserves for rebuilt and expanded Soyo Airport which OCEAN ecotourism and deserted beaches within registered 18,508 take-offs and landings in Iron ore easy reach, such as Kimbriz Beach, only 2013, an extra nine flights a day compared Phosphates Proposed sugar renery Salt, brick, cement works Bembe UIGE 70km south of the city. There are also with 2012. It can handle 2,000 passengers N’zeto

Petroleum

LNG Mussera Uíge Mining Angola’s northwest has

Timber rich mineral potential,

Sugar, ethanol Ambriz including copper, silver, Petromar plant Ambriz Nambuangongo Port bauxite, mercury, lead, International airport granite and mineral water BENGO National capital

Provincial capital Fruit and vegetables Town, village Mabubas Farm machinery D. R. CONGO Park / Reserve Barra do Dande Dam ZAIRE Luanda Highway Ango ex plant Road Caxito ANGOLA Rail 0 400 km Cacuaco 0 200 miles River Housing construction

20 km Luanda N 20 miles LUANDA Mark Clydesdale (BZO)

26 SONANGOL UNIVERSO JUNE 2014 27 PROVINCE Angoflex at Barra do Dande PROVINCE

There are many investment opportunities in Angola’s northwest that the new highways and power supplies will make even more attractive Andreas Linke, courtesy of Gauff

used in toothpaste, detergents, soft drinks, Francisco Queiróz has revealed there are natural gateway and service centre for the vitamin supplements and animal feed. long term plans to build a 400km-long farming areas in Zaire and Uíge, given its The project consists of a mine, a railway from the mining area to the port location at the road junction of the two processing plant and storage units. A new of Soyo. provinces. The city is already developing as port in the Nzeto area will be built and a a centre for agribusiness and aims to form Bengo: thriving province Courtesy of Angoflex Peter Moeller power generator installed when the project a cluster of support industries that can is completed in 2017. The port of Ambriz in Bengo province lies manufacture and repair tractors, farming World demand for phosphates is very just off the Luanda–Nzeto highway and is implements and irrigation equipment. simultaneously and, with its 24 shops and opens up the coast’s tourism potential Nzeto is planned which will also produce high, and Angola’s deposits have the home to another oil industry facility. Here Caxito itself has a thriving and three restaurants, rivals Luanda’s airport in where a day out on the beach and sampling alcohol and generate power from its waste advantage of a coastal location, allowing Petromar, a joint venture of ENI’s Saipem expanding irrigated farming area and terms of comfort. Angola’s bountiful seafood is most visitors’ materials. There are also plans in place for easy access to overseas market as well as and Sonangol, builds metal structures for food processing with its own power dam, Soyo will undergo a communications idea of a good time. salt, tile, brick and cement works in the town. the promising domestic farming sector. the oil industry. Mabubas (27MW output). Caxito produces revolution when the new Nzeto road The whole of Angola’s northwest is Ornamental stones are already Nearer Luanda, Barra do Dande hosts increasing yields of fruit and vegetables, is completed, which will likely have a Nzeto awakens blessed with good beaches, and Mussera quarried at Tomboco and at Mussera, an Angoflex yard where umbilicals are with bananas and tomatoes in the strong impact on cutting food prices and Roughly halfway between Luanda and Bay – just 56km south of Nzeto – is one of halfway between Nzeto and Ambriz. An manufactured and loaded for use in deep- forefront, for the nearby Luanda market. increasing the flow of tourists. The new road M’banza Kongo lies Nzeto, at present the best. Angolan-South Korean joint venture sea oil and gas production. Umbilicals are will also form an energy corridor as it will a sleepy fishing town on an important works quarries at Mussera and also at sheaves of pipelines that connect to and The road ahead have running alongside it a gas pipeline and road junction just two hour’s drive from Mineral wealth Caxito further south. The company is also control suites of valves on the seabed. There are many investment opportunities transmission lines from the Soyo generation Luanda on a newly-resurfaced road. When Angola’s northwest has rich mineral interested in developing metals mining in The busy little fishing area of Barra do in Angola’s northwest that the new plant currently under construction. the Nzeto–Soyo road is completed later potential, including copper, silver, bauxite, Angola’s northwest. Dande nearby has been chosen as the site highways and power supplies will make The port of Soyo will also shortly this year, the town’s economy is likely to mercury, lead, granite and mineral water. Just over the border from Zaire of the new port of Luanda which has now even more attractive. Electricity will benefit from a fast catamaran service, experience a boom as new traffic passes One of the region’s major resources province in neighbouring Uíge there are no extra capacity. The new deepwater port boost mining, manufacturing and food which began operating along the coast of through and allows the easier distribution already being developed is phosphates large areas of mineral deposits, stretching will have plenty of room to expand and will processing. It will also aid the distribution Luanda province in April 2014. Eventually of farm products. For example, some 2.5 from the Lucunga Basin, just north of from Bembe, a copper mine before 1974, have a bulk terminal for future iron ore of foodstuffs by powering cold storage, a this service will extend from the capital to million eggs will soon be produced each Nzeto. Vale Fértil Limitada is developing to Mavoio near Maquela do Zombo on and manganese exports from the Dondo boon for fishermen and farmers who often all major towns along Angola’s northwest year by the Agrarius agribusiness concern the $82 million first stage of a $1 the DRC border. Copper reserves are region. This port will likely have a rail link suffer from inadequate refrigeration of coast: Cacuaco, Barra do Dande, Ambriz, at Nzeto in addition to cassava flour billion project to exploit the estimated estimated at around 16 million tonnes. to the existing Luanda-Malange line. their surplus produce. Nzeto, Soyo and Noqui on the Zaire and corn. 130-million-tonne deposit. Phosphates Intensive mineral surveying is currently Not far from Barra do Dande is Caxito, Fasten your seatbelts: Angola’s estuary. This alternative to the road also A sugar refinery at Kinzau just north of are a key fertiliser ingredient and are also underway. Geology and Mines minister capital of Bengo province. Caxito forms a northwest is on the road to prosperity. p

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