World Bank to increase financing to Angola’s private sector to boost economic diversification

The World Bank is ready to augment its financing to Angola’s private sector during the period 2020-2025 to boost the South African country’s economic diversification, the representative of the institution in Angola, Olivier Lambert recently said in southern Huila province.

The World Bank’s official disclosed the information after meeting with deputy-governor for Political and Social Economic Affairs of Huila, Maria João Chipalavela, whose two-day visit aims at presenting the 2020-2025 partnership proposals for Angola.

According to Olivier Lambert, in the framework of the new Angola and World Bank partnership, the private sector is top priority, since is still very poor and faces many difficulties. He added that the sector’s growth has been overshadowed by the huge presence of the State, whose access to credits is also a problem coupled with low competitiveness levels.

 However, added the official, the way the economy of the country is structured it is not sustainable, since it clings to oil sector, which in its turn does not create jobs, speeds up poverty level, increases vulnerability, imbalance and regional inequalities.

According to the World Bank manager, the institution intends to aid boosting the diversification and growth of the private sector, by obeying three key pillars, namely, the inspection of the basic services, water, electricity, telecommunication, transports and connectivity, the improvement of the business environment for private sector and thirdly the improvement of agri-business, which is an important segment for the growth of the country.

The World Bank’s project portfolio for Angola is small, but important, taking into account that so far, the country has roughly USD one billion in active projects, which is not enough to such a big nation, the third economy of Africa and inhabited by around 30 million people, underlined the official.

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