Opinion
Angola’s lessons from Brazil
Social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook resound with younger Angolans’ critiques and jibes against the ruling class.
But even Angolan officials say more could have been done since the war. “We should by now have a productive non-oil sector, whether agriculture or industry. A number of basic steps need to be taken before investors can actually seriously invest in Angola,” a senior official working on economic policy told The Africa Report.
“Roads, infrastructure, energy and water, most of these things are still hard to get outside of Luanda, which makes it hard because you’re not going to put a factory or big industrial project within Luanda. Also, you need raw materials, and a lot of these are still imported,” he continued.
Since the civil war, Angola recorded world-beating growth rates as it rebuilt its devastated roads, bridges, ports and power stations. More state-funded grands projets are in the works; even new cities are planned, although the older cities are in dire need of renovation. Yet the new cityscapes, added office and apartment blocks and freshly built highways take on the appearance of a Hollywood film set.
For beyond the marble-floored hotels hosting epic parties is the stultifying reality in which most Angolans live.These political and social realities are far from frozen, however. There is no shortage of well-argued policy planning documents such as Visão 2025 (Vision 2025). Its main aim is to spur job creation by diversifying the economy away from oil.
According to the International Monetary Fund’s latest report in June: “With oil alone accounting for over 95% of its export revenue, Angola is the least export-diverse country in Africa, and rivals Iraq for least export-diverse worldwide. “Well-educated Angolans are returning home in droves. Those who get the top jobs buy – or more often rent – new apartments and try to get their children places at the international schools.
Portuguese job-seekers
But there is still a chronic shortage of middle managers across the economy. Here, the economic travails of southern Europe are helping. Reversing the pattern of the war years, an orderly queue of visa-seeking Portuguese workers snakes around the corner from Angola’s embassy on Lisbon’s Avenida República.
These days business is less brisk at the Portuguese consulate in Luanda. Angola’s elite may be buying up banks and insurance companies in Europe, but the preferred holiday destinations are Rio and Cape Town. This migration of Portuguese workers reflects both Europe’s financial woes and the continuing crisis in Angola’s growing number of schools and universities.
