The National Diamond Company of Angola (Endiama) expects to reach a production of 12 million carats this year.
The information was provided by the chairman of the Board of Directors of Endiama, Ganga Júnior, at the end of the working meeting he held, Wednesday 1st March, in Luanda, with the Board of Directors of the Institute of Management of Assets and State Participations (IGAPE) .
According to the manager, in 2022, Endiama had a production of around nine million carats, which is why, in 2023, a target was projected to produce around 12 million carats.
During the meeting promoted by IGAPE, within the scope of the attributions and with a view to reinforcing the monitoring of the operational activity of companies in the public business sector, issues related to the need for consolidated accountability and the overcoming of audit reservations on the accounts of the company.
Ganga Junior explained that IGAPE had direct contact with the company’s management in order to find out about Endiama’s operating issues, where the company’s performance in the period from 2017 to 2018 was explained, as well as the setting of objectives that guide the next economic exercises.
In 2017, Endiama had a loss of around US$3.5 million, but since then, the company has considerably recovered results, and in 2021 it already reached around US$80 million. As for diamond production and sales rates, they have been improving, having started with an annual turnover close to one billion dollars and in 2022 it was very close to two billion dollars.
With regard to the process of implementing the Diamond Exchange, the official said that the process is ongoing and, at the moment, they are working with Sodiam, the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas and other institutions with the aim of still In the second quarter of this year, the stock market started working temporarily.
“Because it is a new institution, from scratch, it does not exist at the level of all producing countries only in South Africa, even so we decided to set up the Exchange in Angola and we are convinced that it will be a process of continuous improvement in the functioning, resulting from the commercialization of the diamonds”, he stressed.
IGAPE vision
In turn, the administrator of IGAPE, Raimundo Santa Rosa, explained that the purpose of the visit to Endiama was to monitor not only the company’s work, but also the reporting system.
“As is known, last week a methodological meeting of the public business sector was held, during which IGAPE presented the methodology and reporting schedule for this year”, he said.
He maintained that Endiama’s accounts are better compared to past years, as all audit reservations have been resolved, with some that are natural to the normal activity process, knowing that the diamond company has multiple activities, some gray areas between prospecting activities or concession that passed to another agency, to a need to align the form of transition of these accounts.
“The most certain thing is that everything is lined up for closing the accounts. Endiama is very advanced, I think it may be one of the first companies to render accounts this year and meet the deadline, which will be different compared to previous years ”, sustained the official.