Angola’s 2019 – 2022 Privatisation Program aims to generate over $160 million (100 billion Angolan Kwanzas) in revenue through the divestment of several state-owned assets to the private sector this year.

Between January 2019 to April 2020, the Program has already divested fourteen (14) companies primarily from the Special Economic Zone, the agricultural and livestock sectors, and have generated 31 billion Kwanzas in revenues.

Fifty-five (55) assets are up for divestment this year. Forty-five (45) companies are expected to complete their privatisation processes by the end of September 2020, and the rest are expected to complete theirs in October.

One hundred and ninety (190) assets are expected to be privatised during the duration of the program. The petroleum sector will cover twelve (12) subsidiaries.

The targeted companies are spread over various sectors of the Angolan economy including mineral resources, transportation, telecommunications, health, agriculture and construction, and a host of others. The assets will be sold via public tenders, limited tenders by prior qualifications and public offer on the Angolan stock exchange.

The State Assets and Participations Management Institute said the forecast is yet to include the sale of holdings in the financial sector that comprises of three (3) banks and one (1) insurance company.

Angola has already taken a giant step in its privatisation of assets. Over time, African countries have been encouraged to privatise a lot of state-owned assets and promote lasting public-private partnerships to ease the burden of operation and maintenance on the government. To some extent, the private sector has proven to be better operators and maintainers of assets. The government of African nations have been encouraged to allow the private sectors to manage assets, and rather be a regulator. The Central African country has already embarked on this worthy project and it is hoped that other countries will be emulating this in the future.