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AFRICA • EDUCATION & CONSULTING
Seedstars Global
OCTOBER 29, 2020
We had a chance to talk with Eduardo Vieira, Head of Strategic Planning & Innovation of UNITEL Angola, and find out the company’s perspective on fostering entrepreneurship in the region.
What does it take to build an entrepreneurial ecosystem? While there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, we know that change requires a joint effort at the intersection of experiences and backgrounds between different people and organizations. This year, we partnered with UNITEL Angola to make sure more entrepreneurs in the country have access to quality learning and investment opportunities.
We had a chance to talk with Eduardo Vieira, Head of Strategic Planning & Innovation of UNITEL Angola, and find out the company’s perspective on fostering entrepreneurship in the region.
In your opinion, what are the top three most efficient ways to boost the economy of Angola?
I would start with 1. Diversification of the economy by creating the conditions which will attract foreign investment into the country. At the moment, the economy relies highly on the oil industry and there is potential to diversify with Agriculture, Tourism and Manufacturing. 2. Investment in education of quality, from schools to universities; and 3. Moving towards the decentralization of money markets (interest rate, exchange rate and secondary markets for bonds and stocks).
How would you evaluate the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country? What are the challenges and opportunities?
The overall entrepreneurial ecosystem is still in its embryonic stage, despite a number of extremely promising initiatives taking place, which have contributed to an increasing number of startups in the country.
Amongst the major challenges, I would say that we are lacking policies that promote innovation. In addition, levels of bureaucracy are still high. However, as the current scenario practically consists of a green field, opportunities are immense, as the digitalization is just starting.
What do you find unique about Angola and its tech landscape?
Angola is an extremely resilient and creative nation. For example, startups have to adapt to a complex landscape of challenges, such as customers' skepticism towards digital payments. To tackle these and similar challenges, the entrepreneurs use their creativity and mix digital and offline solutions.
Why is it that among all the possible ‘tools’ to create impact, Unitel has chosen to work with startups?
Startups are crucial to our business strategy for different reasons. First, we believe that local content creation will be the future in all tech industries. Startups play a prominent role in the decentralization of digital content creation in Angola. As a result of this, for the past 5 years, we have been running a startup competition, which produces on average 200 mobile apps per year. Second, we see startups and innovation as an opportunity to create and foster a culture of digital transformation within our own company. Finally, we consider technology to be the most impactful tool in our CSR strategy, in which startups play a major role.
What are you the proudest of as a company?
When it comes to innovation and tech, I would highlight two different programs. The first being UNITEL Go Challenge, within which we have identified and mentored more than 1000 startups. The other is the UNITEL CODE, a program which has given us an opportunity to train +500 children in the logic of coding.
How do you plan to multiply your impact and replicate your best practices in other countries?
We aim to expand the UNITEL Go Challenge to the scope of a regional summit, firstly by creating the first African Portuguese speaking countries’ pitch competition, and then, expanding it to the rest of the region.
