Luanda, April 24, 2025 (Lusa) - Angolan business leaders said on Friday that unfair competition, hoarding and the lack of invoicing are "killing" small and medium-sized businesses in Angola and called on the government to take measures to combat the phenomenon.
According to the Angolan businesses, "harmful to competition" practices have been implemented by "many foreign businesspeople" who operate in the same chain as "importers, wholesalers and retailers" of various products.
"Who are the importers? They are individuals who come here and are supported by multinationals. They are importers, they become wholesalers, and they become retailers (...). It's sad, but the government has to take action. Today Angolans don't know how to sell oil, you can't find an Angolan company selling soap or matches," said Angolan businessman Gilberto Simão today.
Today, here in Angola, the "foreign businessman is a wholesaler and brings his workers from abroad, who become retailers," said the businessman, stressing that he is not against foreign investment in the country.
Speaking on the sidelines of the ceremony to present the Strategic Plan of Angola's Competition Regulatory Authority (ARC) for the five-year period 2025-2029, the Angolan investor said that "monopolies, hoarding, and unfair competition" should be combated.
"So we need to combat this unfair competition with measures. We're not against non-Angolans or foreigners, but the government needs to take measures," he said.
Gilberto Simão, also president of the Angolan Bakery and Pastry Industries Association (AIPPA), regretted that the ARC's strategic plan did not include measures to combat dumping (unfair competition consisting of selling products below cost or market price), hoarding and non-invoicing.
"Dumping is a criminal offence, hoarding is a criminal offence. You go to any company owned by our non-Angolan brothers and they don't give you an invoice, which damages the Angolan economy," said the businessman, considering that micro, small and medium-sized companies “are dying”.
For the AIPPA leader, the country must implement "order and discipline to combat globalisation"—which brings in entrepreneurs who violate competition laws—to safeguard its economy: "I've been an association leader for 40 years; I've never seen anything like this".
"We're dying, let the government help us. Associations today are neither seen nor heard," he lamented.
Gilberto Simão insisted that the Angolan business fabric "is being dominated by monopolies, which win public tenders, monopolise sectors, killing off micro, small and medium-sized companies".
The president of the Association of Industrialists of Angola (AIA), José Severino, also complained about unfair competition in Angola and called for the "debureaucratisation" of the services of the General Tax Administration (AGT) to broaden the formal base of taxpayers.
"There is a lot of unfair competition. And in this unfair competition, (...) it seems to be understood that the informal market is just our beloved "zungueiras" [informal sellers], and it's not," said José Severino.
According to the AIA leader, several sectors of the economy in Angola operate informally because the AGT, in its "concern to obtain revenue to balance the budget, has created systems that mean that a large part of the market can't fit in".
DAS/ADB // ADB.
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