Angola is reinforcing its National Financial Inclusion Strategy (ENIF) to boost productivity and expand economic opportunities for households, Minister of State for Economic Coordination José de Lima Massano announced on Thursday.
Massano made the announcement while opening the 15th meeting of the African Financial Inclusion Policy Initiative (AfPI) in Luanda, noting that despite the strategy’s short implementation period, it had already produced encouraging results.
Launched in December 2025, the ENIF combines the expansion of access to financial services with strengthened financial literacy, digital infrastructure development and consumer protection, with the overarching aim of broadening access to financial services across the country.
As a concrete illustration of progress, Massano highlighted that Angola’s financial inclusion rate reached 51.7% in the first quarter of this year, drawing close to the 65% target set for 2027.
On banking penetration specifically, he noted that approximately 32% of the population — equivalent to 5.7 million citizens — are currently integrated into the formal banking system.
The government has set a target of raising that figure to 36% by 2027, which would bring the total number of Angolans holding a bank account to approximately eight million.
Mobile and digital payments are growing sharply, with Massano reporting a rise of approximately 56% in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier.
He argued that this trajectory is underpinned by improvements in the business environment and macroeconomic stability, pointing to Angola’s June inflation rate of 10.11% as the lowest price-growth reading since 2015.
“With lower inflation, we have better conditions to protect incomes, savings and investment, but also to enhance access to credit, which may become available at more affordable costs,” Massano said.
In his view, easier access to credit will create new opportunities for the development of innovative and inclusive solutions within the financial system, accelerating financial inclusion and enabling broader participation in the gains from macroeconomic stability and economic growth.
The two-day AfPI meeting brings together representatives of central banks, regulators, policymakers and financial institutions to discuss challenges and opportunities for accelerating financial inclusion across the continent, while strengthening regional cooperation and the exchange of best practices.
The event forms part of the celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the National Bank of Angola (BNA), which falls on 5 November.
AfPI was established in May 2017 during the 5th Annual Roundtable held in Maputo, Mozambique, and serves as the continent’s primary regulatory platform for the financial inclusion sector.
The initiative, which brings together 32 countries, emerged as the successor to the African Mobile Phone Financial Services Policy Initiative (AMPI), which was launched in February 2013.
Source: ANGOP / Original article: www.angop.ao
