Angola’s state-owned enterprise sector cost taxpayers the equivalent of US$352 million in 2025 while generating returns of only US$83 million, underscoring the mounting fiscal burden of a public corporate portfolio that continues to grow despite a privatisation drive launched six years ago.
Accounts for the Public Enterprise Sector (Sector Empresarial Público, SEP) for the 2025 financial year show the government spent 271.9 billion kwanzas on company recapitalisations, to which a further 49.0 billion kwanzas in operational subsidies were added. The combined outlay of 320.9 billion kwanzas — equivalent to roughly $352 million at end-year exchange rates — represents a 66% increase on the 193.6 billion kwanzas recorded in 2024, according to calculations by Expansão based on data published by the Institute for Asset and State Equity Management (Instituto de Gestão de Activos e Participações do Estado, IGAPE).
The continued rise in public funds directed at propping up state companies is particularly striking given that the government launched its Privatisation Programme (ProPriv) in 2019 with the explicit aims of reducing the state’s footprint in the economy and improving efficiency. Uncertainty nonetheless persists over the programme’s completion: nine assets still need to be divested before year-end.
Despite those reform ambitions, the state’s corporate perimeter remains large and its associated costs are rising. As of 2025, the SEP universe comprised 86 assets, distributed across 57 state-owned enterprises, 25 public-domain companies and four minority shareholdings. In 2024, the total stood at 87 entities. The net change of just one entity — after accounting for privatisations, dissolutions, newly created companies and any nationalisations — raises questions about the real-world effectiveness of the reform programme to date.
Source: Expansão / Original article: http://expansao.co.ao/empresas/detalhe/empresas-publicas-custaram-352-milhoes-usd-ao-pais-e-so-renderam-83-milhoes-em-2025-73666.html
