Luanda, June 19, 2026 (Lusa) - The leader of UNITA, Angola’s largest opposition party, said in Luanda on Thursday that Angola does not need more promises of diversification, but an economy “free enough to finally diversify”.
Adalberto Costa Júnior addressed the nation on Angola’s political, economic and social situation, emphasising that Angolans need “a state disciplined enough to finally unleash society’s productive potential”.
According to Adalberto Costa Júnior, Angola has not wasted decades due to a lack of resources, but because it organised its resources, budget, currency and institutional framework within a model that centralised decision-making, protected rent-seeking interests, postponed reforms and transformed abundant resources into dependency.
“The country possesses abundant natural resources, a strategic location and a young population. Even so, it remains vulnerable, poorly diversified, under severe fiscal strain, with shallow financial markets and excessively dependent on a single source of foreign exchange: oil,” Adalberto Costa Júnior added.
For the leader of Angola’s second-largest political party, the country’s problem is not limited to the volatility of crude oil prices, external shocks or the inadequacy of public programmes.
He argued that “what has consistently been lacking is an economic environment in which production becomes more rational than rent-seeking, investment safer than relying on protection, formalisation more advantageous than remaining on the fringes, and diversification more profitable than continuing to depend on oil and the state”.
In his lengthy speech, the UNITA leader emphasised that the central issue of the analysis he presented “is not merely how much Angola collects, exports, owes or grows”, but rather what economic model the data reveal.
Costa Júnior also said that the concentration of power in the president “allows for the political capture of the justice system,” and went on to list corruption, poor quality of education and healthcare, poverty, inequality, and a lack of opportunities as problems facing the country.
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