The National Hydrocarbons Company (ENH), through the Linkar project, has trained 21 companies in Vilankulo, Gaza province, which operate in various fields of activity, in legalisation, and has also granted the respective licences, the newspaper Noticias reported on Wednesday 26 June .
The newspaper says that the initiative, which has a partnership between the government and the sector, aims to offer training, technical assistance and institutional support to the national business community, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), for the certification and standardisation of their processes, as well as facilitating the identification of opportunities for business connections and the signing of contracts for the provision of services in the oil and gas industry.
For Linkar project coordinator Ken McGhee, the aim of these training programmes is to make MSMEs more competitive and capable of supplying goods and services to the country’s oil industry, including the extractive sector value chain.
Ken McGhee emphasised that the project also includes the identification of opportunities, serving as a business link between multinationals and MSMEs to sign service contracts. “The great challenge of this project is to get more than 30 companies from Inhambane province, as well as Cabo Delgado, to win contracts in the oil and gas sector,” he emphasised.
In Inhambane province, Linkar aims to train more than 60 companies in the districts covered by the natural gas exploration project, specifically in the districts of Vilankulo, Inhassoro and Govuro.
In the same vein, the source said that another major value of the project is to promote the standardisation and certification of SMEs for the award of ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) certificates, so as to ensure that the goods and services provided by companies are based on the requirements and norms established in the international standard.
For the representative of the Vilankulo administrator, Silvestre Romano, the fact that the district is the gateway to the province of Inhambane demonstrates the concerns of the local business community in finding solutions so that they can grow and participate actively in the megaprojects that exist in Mozambique, especially those stemming from the Temane gas exploration.
“One of the ways to promote development is to have our companies able to respond to market demands. As a government, we commend these initiatives because, as well as strengthening our SMEs, they create more jobs for young people,” he said. He added that, despite the improvements, the local business council still resents the low participation of companies in the natural gas exploration project underway in Inhambane province, pointing to the lack of qualification and certification as the main obstacles.
“The number of companies providing services in these projects is still not satisfactory, so we hope that Linkar will facilitate the participation of more local SMEs in the megaprojects, since a large part of the problems are being overcome,” he explained.
It should be noted that the Linkar Programme, an initiative implemented by Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH) and financed by the African Development Bank, through trust funds from Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa and Fund for African Private Sector Assistance (AFAWA and FAPA), has already certified more than 50 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), from the provinces of Cabo Delgado, Sofala, Inhambane and Maputo province and city, to participate in oil and gas projects.
