The Angolan President has approved a program to support the employability of service members being discharged from the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA), with a budget of 41.5 billion kwanzas (€39.8 million), according to a Presidential Decree.
Presidential Decree No. 126/25, dated June 5, approved the Program for Socio-Professional Guidance and Employability Support for Discharged Members of the FAA After Completing Active Military Service (POSPAEE), promoted by the Multisectoral Group for the Reintegration of Ex-Military Personnel (GMRE).
Military personnel who, after completing their active duty, do not wish to continue as volunteers are discharged and moved to the reserve. The program, to be implemented over three years by the Institute for the Socio-Professional Reintegration of Ex-Military Personnel (IRSEM), aims to provide protection, guidance, and technical-professional training or retraining, with a focus on employability and improving post-discharge quality of life.
Key activities include, among others, promoting income generation, productive integration, and employment, leveraging opportunities created by the public and private markets. The program also seeks to foster exchanges with countries in the region and beyond that have experienced similar military transitions.
The FAA, created in 1991 under the Peace Accords with a planned total of 50,000 personnel — 40,000 in the army, 6,000 in the national air force, and 4,000 in the Angolan navy — emerged from the merger of the former People’s Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA), the governmental army, and the now-defunct Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FALA), the military wing of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).
The decree emphasizes the current difficulties in renewing personnel within the FAA due to the country’s socioeconomic context.
“The sector has not been able to reintegrate into civil society those citizens who, having fulfilled their duty to serve the nation, exit and return to the productive sector to continue contributing to the country’s growth and development,” the document highlights.
According to the decree, society continues to face challenges in absorbing discharged military personnel into the productive system because the country’s weak economic growth does not meet the demand in the job market.
POSPAEE aims to support 60,078 individuals discharged through the FAA’s personnel renewal process, listed in the database provided by the FAA’s General Staff to IRSEM.
Eligibility criteria target non-professional FAA members discharged from active military service.
Source: Lusa
