Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (00:07):
Hi, Tony Poulos here at MWC 2026 in sunny Barcelona. Today I have the pleasure of meeting again with Angola's Minister of Telecommunications, Information Technology and Social Communication at MINTTICS, His Excellency Mr. Mário Oliveira. Your Excellency, welcome. This is your third consecutive visit to MWC Barcelona as Minister of MINTTICS. What specific expectations do you have for this trip?

Mário Oliveira, Minister of MINTTICS, Angola (00:36):
Thank you. First of all, I would like to thank you because to be here in this interview, speaking to you is a pleasure to say something about the development of Angola in the ICT environment. My expectation for this year is always almost the same: development, new technology, innovation. And because AI now is the most important innovation in the world, we are looking for some expertise to see how Angola can build our strategy in terms of AI technology.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (01:25):
Last year at MWC, you introduced Angola's Universal Coverage Plan. Could you update us on the progress achieved over the past year and share any new strategies or goals for the future?

Mário Oliveira, Minister of MINTTICS, Angola (01:36):
Yes. This coverage strategy is underway. We are now covering many places in Angola up country. We now cover around 11 provinces with more than 20,000 population upcountry in Angola, some schools, public places for students, for young people. The strategy continues. Now we are using our own satellite to provide connectivity. We have a project that we call Ilumina Angola. We have another one that we call Connected. Both projects are to spread connectivity and internet service for Angolan people. Angola is a huge country. It takes time to cover all the country. But we are on the way. Things are running well and we are confident that maybe in the next five years we can cover all Angolans.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (02:40):
According to the news this year, Angola has built its own national cloud platform. Could you share more details about the construction of the national cloud?

Mário Oliveira, Minister of MINTTICS, Angola (02:49):
The national cloud is part of our digital transformation. When I say digital transformation in terms of our economy, of all environments, our society also. And this is also in a good way. We will inaugurate it in next April. And after that, the public service and also the private sector will be there. With our partners, things are running well. We think that we are in a very good way to put Angola ahead of digital transformation in Africa.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (03:27):
From your sharing, we understand that the national cloud is a crucial step in Angola's digital transformation. Looking ahead, does the Angolan government have additional plans for digital government development?

Mário Oliveira, Minister of MINTTICS, Angola (03:39):
Yes, it's part of the digital transformation. Because when we say we are working for the digital transformation in Angola, we are talking about government, economy, population, health. We have some hospitals in Angola, for example, that have health providing service, especially in villages with support of the doctors in big cities. This is a very big project that we have developed in tech. And because of that, we will be organising from 11 to 30 June our ICT forum we call Angotic. In this forum, the theme of Angotic is digital transformation of Angola. And I invite you and all the partners, all the producers, all the providers to visit Angola at this time from 11 June.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (04:36):
This year, artificial intelligence has undoubtedly become a central focus globally, especially at this event. As one of the most influential countries in Africa, what role does Angola intend to play in AI development and deployment?

Mário Oliveira, Minister of MINTTICS, Angola (04:50):
In this term, we are looking at training our people because we think that to install computers and data centres is not enough. For us, we want to develop our own platform and we need to have our own expertise to develop it. It is the way that we are following. Preparing our people with, of course, the partners to have in Angola our own AI platform. This is the focus.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (05:28):
We have noticed Your Excellency's consistent emphasis on ICT talent development in Angola. Given the rapid advancement of AI, capacity building for AI talent is also crucial. May we ask if Angola has already formulated specific plans for AI talent development?

Mário Oliveira, Minister of MINTTICS, Angola (05:46):
Yes. We are talking with some partners to install an Android Academy. One of the partners is Huawei that we are talking with, among others. Huawei, for example, has in Luanda an academy that we are talking with them to prepare this academy for AI training and cybersecurity also. In one word, with our partners, with Angolan students, with Angolan people, we want to have a high level of expertise with the Angolans to contribute to the development of our country. We want to be ahead in digital transformation in Africa. We want to follow the train of development and we cannot be left out. We have to have in Angola training centres and things like that because training is the base for developing a country. Our government is looking at it. It's why when we talk with some partners, we talk all the time about training as the base for development.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (06:57):
Your Excellency, it's always a pleasure to meet with you. Thank you so much for your time.

Mário Oliveira, Minister of MINTTICS, Angola (07:02):
Thank you very much and have a nice MWC.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (07:06):
Thank you.