On Friday, January 24, Angola is making big moves to boost its economy by selling off shares in some of its most valuable assets. The government plans to sell stakes in its telecom giant, Unitel, along with Banco de Fomento Angola and the local branch of Standard Bank.
Part of the Unitel sale will even be available on the stock exchange! According to Jose de Lima Massano, the Economic Coordination Minister, this is part of a larger effort to privatise state-owned businesses and reduce the country’s reliance on oil.
Since 2019, Angola has been working on a list of nearly 200 state-owned assets to privatise — and over half of them have already been sold! But if you’re hoping to get your hands on shares in the oil company Sonangol or the diamond firm Endiama, you’ll have to wait a little longer. Massano explained that they’re still working on getting these companies ready to make their market debut.
On the other hand, Angola is holding on to its investments in some top Portuguese companies, like Banco Comercial Portugues and Galp Energia, because they’ve been performing so well lately.
In other exciting news, Angola is taking a giant leap into space! The country just signed a €225 million deal to build and launch its own Earth Observation Satellite System, with help from European aerospace company AIRBUS. The project includes everything from building the satellite to getting it into orbit. Talk about reaching for the stars!
The agreements were signed by Finance Minister Vera Daves de Sousa during the Angola-France Economic Forum. And that’s not all — Angola is also improving its meteorological services, updating its national seismology network, and modernising a Luanda lab that checks the quality of medicine.
