Angola will pursue the elimination of all fuel subsidies by the end of 2025, which will hopefully allow state oil company Sonangol to resume paying taxes and dividends, the country's Finance Minister Vera Daves de Sousa told Western media.
"We are taking out the fuel subsidies [...] End of 2025, we expect to see this process stabilize and closed as much as possible," she said." "We will be able to see Sonangol normally paying taxes, [improving] profits and paying dividends to the state."
The minister added that the company needs to cut costs for its rebirth by 2026.
One of the reasons for the June decision to end fuel subsidies was the Angolan government's high costs: as the Minister of State for Economic Coordination Manuel Nunes Junior said earlier, the country's spending on fuel subsidies totaled $3.8 billion in 2022.
Sonangol Privatization Underway
Daves de Sousa also disclosed that the government is considering the idea of a partial privatization of Sonangol, with a dual listing on the Angolan and an international stock exchanges in 2025 or 2026.
She added that privatization is underway in the central African country, with 23 state-owned companies in the process of being privatized and another 43, including lender Banco de Fomento Angola and mobile network Unitel, awaiting the start of the process.
Daves de Sousa said in May that Angolan authorities were pleased with the results of the first phase, which brought 568.77 billion kwanzas ($683 million) to the treasury.
Also in May, Secretary of State for Finance and Treasury Ottoniel dos Santos announced the extension of the Propriv program for 2023-2026, which provides for the privatization of 73 more assets and companies by 2026.