Tecnovia Angola

1962 is the year that marks the beginning of the construction of a dream, but to satisfy our curiosity, let us go back to José Guilherme Jorge da Costa’s childhood days. For him the best Christmas presents were miniature trucks and machines and anything that rolled on four wheels. Influenced by his father, Rodrigo da Costa, a businessman in the area of transport and services, his passion for large vehicles, equipment and their activities made José Guilherme da Costa daydream. At the age of 23 he began to make his dream come true, creating the company José Guilherme Jorge da Costa, unipessoal, with the ambition of making it grow. He began as a subcontractor, carrying out groundworks, urbanisations, roads and supplying construction materials. The projects began to be larger in number and scale, with collaboration in major engineering projects, such as the construction of the Lisnave Docks or the Vilamoura Marina. The expansion of the business into almost all areas of public works, accompanied by an increase in own resources and expansion of technical staff numbers, led to the foundation of Tecnovia - Infraestruturas José Guilherme da Costa Lda. in 1973. The company built its first bridges – the Mega, Amioso and Sinhel bridges.
The years from 1976 to 1978 represent an important milestone: expanding to the Autonomous Regions of the Azores and Madeira. The company has built ports, airports, roads, buildings and other structural works for the development of these island regions. The technical capacity and resources, together with the quality of the execution, increased the company’s prestige, which in the 1990s transformed the private limited company into a public limited company, changing its designation to Tecnovia- Sociedade de Empreitadas, S.A. 

Three decades of entrepreneurship, trust, professionalism and, above all else, quality

Year after year, as a result of so much work and dedication, the company expanded its area of operation, and in 1992 the opportunity to establish Tecnovia in Angola arose.As time went by, ties were formed, the company consolidated its brand and today we celebrate 30 years of Tecnovia Angola.
That’s three decades of entrepreneurship, trust, professionalism and, above all else, quality. A toast to life and success can never be too much and, for this reason, Villas&Golfe Industry magazine has dedicated the following lines to a company which is not only committed to the economic development of Angola, but also to acts of social responsibility, which certainly make a difference in the lives of many families.
Luanda is the home of Tecnovia Angola, while its business extends to practically the entire Angolan territory, with industrial centres in several provinces. The range of activities offered by the group seems endless, enough to meet many of the country’s needs: groundworks, hydraulic, airport, maritime, urban and sport infrastructures, roads, railways, bridges, viaducts and tunnels, geotechnics, housing developments and civil construction, environmental works, etc. I can assure you that the list goes on. Besides the engineering and construction field, Tecnovia Angola is also dedicated to the production and sale of construction materials, such as aggregates, hydraulic concrete, bituminous concrete and precast concrete. 

It has been a long journey in Angola, with many challenging and ambitious projects, but everything is possible when you put together a team that exhibits quality, competence, ethics, commitment and group spirit, values which are rooted in the company’s culture.
It has more than 1100 employees, including senior management, foremen, technical and support staff for the various activities. Investment in internal training and in partnerships with various organisations in secondary, professional and higher education, for professional internships and to attract young Angolan middle and upper management has been a strong commitment in recent years.
In terms of heavy equipment, Ricardo Marfim dos Santos, CEO of Tecnovia Angola, says that in order to boost the efficiency and intervention capacity of operations, the company has made major investments and acquired new equipment, and currently has about 1,000 units.

Tecnovia Angola has more than 1100 employees

Another competitive factor of the company is its construction capacity and operational dynamism. This capacity comes from the work done with its own resources and from the production of a significant part of the construction materials needed for the development of the works, which results in greater control over the value chain, from the production of the materials to the project’s conclusion.
But in order to achieve success, Tecnovia Angola had to dig even deeper. Understanding the culture, the needs and traditions of Angola have proved decisive factors in the creation of important partnerships and successful projects. Moulding itself to the country’s roots, understanding the people and their struggles, was something the company always took into consideration. Perhaps this is where the group truly sets itself apart: preserving identity and valuing ethics.

In this context, Ricardo explains that bringing Tecnovia to Angola allowed it to acquire a very detailed knowledge of the local reality, which enables a quick mobilisation of technical and human resources and an easy contact with suppliers and local resources. The company’s capacity, agility and knowledge of the country allow it to contribute to efforts in the recovery and expansion of Angola’s infrastructures. 
Questioned as to what, after 30 years of business in Angola, Tecnovia Angola is today, Ricardo states that «it is a leading company in the Angolan civil construction and public works market,» an entity that is, «constantly transforming and modernising, in order to keep up with the construction market’s latest trends.»

And as remembering is living, let’s recall some of the works done by the company. The Malanje Airport - Runway Pavements was a project that involved the rehabilitation of the paving on runways 2200 metres long and 30 metres wide, or, Manuel Quarta Punza airport, in Uíge, where Tecnovia undertook the rehabilitation, expansion and modernisation of the entire airport infrastructure (runway, passenger terminal and support areas). Completed in 2015, the construction of the Bridge over the Cuito River and Accesses was also an ambitious project by Tecnovia Angola, executed in record time, in the Cuito Cuanavale region. Another bridge built by the group was the New Bridge over the Cambamba River, a construction over the river, replacing the so-called Molhada Bridge. The Cabinda A Roads and access to the port and industrial area of Pumangol are also part of the collection. The diversity of the projects is astounding, just look at its portfolio, which includes everything from housing renovations, to the development of agricultural areas, electricity substations, water treatment plants and much more.

An active body in contributing to the development of the country and its population

But let us talk about one of Tecnovia Angola’s most iconic projects, the Talatona Node. Defined by the CEO as a project which constitutes «one of the greatest challenges we were privileged to be able to overcome», the Talatona Node was inaugurated by the Minister of State and the President of the Republic’s Chief of Staff on July the 17th of this year. It is a complex project in terms of dimension and execution, given its location and being a very busy intersection, which connects to four main road links of Luanda. «The importance of this project led us to design a different strategy from the usual one,» Ricardo Marfim dos Santos reveals. The large number of human resources and equipment involved, as well as its importance in the context of modernising Luanda’s roads, meant that this project was a reference and deserved special attention from the whole team. Ricardo Marfim dos Santos recalls the challenges that cropped up along the way, «from hiring technicians, to managing subcontractors, negotiating with the client, financing entities, among others», which required an extra effort from the workers. The construction involved around 850 people, including direct and indirect employees, and the work’s contract value was approximately 55 million US dollars.

 But anyone who thinks that Tecnovia Angola is a company that only looks at numbers is mistaken. The human aspect is part of the group’s DNA. There is an internal ethos of «works done by people for people», and each project has a personal touch because what they do changes people’s lives. Social responsibility is another of its main pillars. Local hiring, training, integration and the development of local communities are aspects of great importance to the company. Through the Tecnovia Angola Cresce Contigo (Tecnovia Angola Grows with You) project, the company carries out several social actions, particularly for children and young people of school age. For example, the annual delivery of school kits to hundreds of children belonging to the communities where Tecnovia operates. Gestures of solidarity that bring about smiles.
Angola is the fundamental piece of the puzzle for the group, namely, in its globalisation strategy, while Tecnovia Angola is an active body in contributing to the development of the country and its population, in essence, a reciprocal and transparent relationship, reinforced by the strong ties formed, originating from the miscegenation of Portuguese and Angolan cultures.