Business
Angola Ends Partnership With Portugal
LISBON – Angola has broken off its “strategic partnership” with Portugal. This has rattled Lisbon, which is now trying to salvage a promising export market that had gained in signifcance during the eurozone crisis. In recent years relations between Portugal and Angola had become close and intense. The former colony was exuding new-found economic strength and the former colonial master, battered by the financial crisis, was looking for new markets for its ailing businesses.
A “strategic partnership” between the two seemed an ideal solution and the idea was initially vigorously pursued by the governments of the two Portuguese speaking nations. But on Tuesday (15.10.13) Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos dashed any hopes Portugal might have had about the future of that partnership. In his annual state of the nation address to parliament in the capital Luanda, he declared that it was all over.
Angola now had stable relations with almost every country in the world and these partners’ confidence in Angola was growing, dos Santos said. “But with Portugal, unfortunately things are not going well. There have been misunderstandings at the highest level of state and the current political climate does not advise the implementation of the strategic partnership.”
Angolans were investing billions of dollars in Europe, but were accused by the continent of being corrupt, dos Santos complained. The president used his 45 minute speech to settle old scores with Angola’s critics. “In the battle against corruption, the anti-corruption organizations in the West are deliberately creating misunderstandings in order to intimidate Africans who are generating wealth and who want to get access to it. They are creating the general impression that a rich African is invariably a corrupt one,” dos Santos thundered.
Angola offended by Portuguese judicial inquiries
The president was particularly annoyed by the investigations that Portugal’s chief public prosecutor Joana Vidal had launched into the activities of several unnamed members of the Angolan business and political elite.
In September, the Portuguese foreign minister Rui Machete apologized for those investigations on Angolan radio. This prompted the Portuguese opposition to call for his resignation; they said he had violated the independence of Portugal’s judiciary. Machete withdrew his apology. “I am sorry and have no trouble admitting that I was not happy about it (the apology),” he said.
This volte-face by the Portuguese foreign minister had evidently annoyed dos Santos and in parliament he broke into a tirade about Western economic interests. “Elementary research in the oil sector would reveal that American, English and French firms, as well as companies and commercial banks from Portugal are extracting annually from Angola two digit billion (dollar) sums. Why should they be allowed to own such huge corporate firms that are denied to us Angolans,” he said.
Former Marxists
Dissenting voices raised against this outburst were not heard or expected. The MPLA, the ruling party and former liberation movement, won 175 of the 220 seats in parliament at the elections last year. The MPLA dominates economic and political life in Angola, where GDP has risen more than tenfold, from $11 billion (8 billion euros) to $114 billion, since the end of the civil war in 2002.
Although the MPLA was originally a Marxist organization battling colonial masters, a few families from the nomenklatura and a number of influential generals have amassed vast fortunes. Meanwhile, two thirds of the country’s population of 20 million live on less than $2.
According to Forbes magazine, the president’s daughter, Isabel dos Santos, is the world’s richest female African and the continent’s first woman billionaire. She has invested a large part of her fortune in Portugal and owns stakes in the ZON Multimedia holding company, as well as in the BES bank and the Portuguese Investment Bank.
The need for friendly ties
In 2012, Angola was Portugal’s fourth largest export market after Spain, Germany and France. Last year goods worth 3 billion euros – that’s 7 percent of Portuguese exports – were sold to Angola. “It is a very important trading relationship,” said Jose Cantiga Esteves, professor of economics at the Lisbon economics institute ISEG. “That applies to both countries, but specially to Portugal in view of the economic crisis it is going through at the moment,” he said.
Portugal has therefore done all it can in recent years to cultivate friendly ties with its former colony, irrespective of whichever party in Portugal was in power.
Nuno Magalhaes, head of the parliamentary group of the Democratic and Social Center – People’s Party (CDS-PP), the junior partners in government, said that his party had avoided doing anything which might harm the interests of the 150,000 Portuguese who live or work in Angola or of the 10,000 firms that do business with Angola.
Magalhaes said recent developments made him uneasy and he hoped that Portugal and Angola would soon return to the cordial relations they previously enjoyed.
“We know that if Portugal doesn’t occupy privileged space in Angola, then somebody else will,” he said.
The Social Democrat PSD, the senior partners in government with the CDS-PP, are equally concerned. Parliamentary group leader Luis Montenegro also hopes that the economic and cultural ties that have been forged with Angola and the Angolan people will once again regain their old momentum.
– DW
A recent review of budget performance across Nigerian states has revealed that none managed to exceed a 60% execution rate between January and September 2024.
The underwhelming performance raises concerns about the states’ readiness to handle the ambitious budgets they have planned for the 2025 fiscal year.
From Katsina to Akwa Ibom, states struggled to meet their budget targets, with execution rates ranging from 26.9% to 55.1%.
The review highlights inefficiencies in fiscal planning, low internal revenue generation, and a reliance on federal allocations and borrowing.
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Katsina State: Allocated N481.7 billion for 2024 but spent just N216.4 billion, representing 44.9% budget performance.
The state recorded an internally generated revenue (IGR) of N29.9 billion.
Jigawa State: With a budget of N383.5 billion, the state spent N174.8 billion (45.6%) and generated N18.4 billion internally.
Niger State: Budget execution stood at 30.4%, with N252.2 billion spent out of N829.4 billion. IGR was N29.2 billion, representing just 3.5% of the budget.
Abia State: Achieved 30.3% performance, spending N171.8 billion of its N567.2 billion budget, with IGR at N22.1 billion.
Anambra State: Spent N132.5 billion out of N410.3 billion (32.3%) and generated N28.2 billion internally.
Ondo State: Executed 52.3% of its N395.2 billion budget, spending N206.6 billion, with IGR at N24.4 billion.
Oyo State: Spent N210.9 billion out of N438.4 billion (48.1%), recording the highest IGR among reviewed states at N45.7 billion.
Bauchi State: Achieved 51.4% budget performance, spending N202.9 billion of its N394.8 billion allocation, while generating N15.9 billion internally.
Zamfara State: Executed 34.2% of its N426.5 billion budget, spending N145.8 billion, with IGR at N18.4 billion.
Adamawa State: Spent N154.8 billion out of N281.1 billion (55.1%) but generated only N9.1 billion internally.
Akwa Ibom: Recorded the lowest budget performance at 26.9%, spending N228.7 billion of its N849.9 billion budget. IGR stood at N41.4 billion.
Niger State’s fiscal performance stands out as a worrying case. Despite budgeting N829.4 billion for 2024, the state spent only N252.2 billion, relying heavily on federal allocations (N182 billion) and loans (N79 billion, covering 31.3% of expenditures). The state generated just N29.2 billion internally.
As Niger State plans to increase its budget to N1.5 trillion in 2025—a 48.3% rise from 2024—questions are being raised about its ability to finance such a massive appropriation.
Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago recently defended the state’s financial approach, claiming a 68.88% budget performance for 2024.
However, analysts have pointed out discrepancies in the state’s fiscal records.
“The numbers don’t add up,” said one analyst. “If Niger State relied on internally generated revenue alone, it would have achieved only 3.5% of its 2024 budget. The reliance on loans and federal allocations is unsustainable.”
The state’s fiscal challenges are not new. In 2023, Niger budgeted N473 billion but spent only N190.9 billion (40.3%).
It generated N18 billion internally, received N92.6 billion from the federation account, and borrowed N90 billion to bridge the gap.
The inability of states to execute their 2024 budgets effectively has raised doubts about their capacity to manage even larger budgets in 2025.
Fiscal experts are calling for a reassessment of budget planning and implementation processes to avoid deepening financial crises.
“There’s an urgent need for states to improve revenue generation and reduce dependence on loans,” said another expert. “Without these measures, achieving fiscal sustainability will remain a mirage.”
Following the marginal reduction of the pump prices of premium motor spirit (PMS) by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and the Nigerian National Petrol Company Limited (NNPC Ltd), civil society groups have reacted by calling for further downward review.
Recall that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery had announced a partnership with MRS Oil and Gas to offer petrol at N935 per litre at retail outlets, while it reviewed the ex-depot price from N970 to N899.50 per litre.
The move, saw state oil major, the Nigeria National Petroleum Company peg its retail prices at N965/litre.
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However, the civil society groups are of the opinion that the price reduction, fall short of expectations.
According to the Chairman, Centre for Accountability and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran, the reduced price of N935/litre was still expensive and unsatisfactory.
He pointed out that petrol was just one of the products coming out of crude and that both government and private business could still give out free petrol to citizens while making huge profits from the other products.
In his words, “Well, we believe that if NNPC and the private sector actually give out PMS for free, they will still not run their business at a loss, because the other derivatives of petroleum products can still serve them, and can still make them to break even. So, even at that N900 and something, it’s still expensive.
“Dangote has kind of mooted the idea that it could drop to as low as N650. And if he has mulled this, then it means that it is the state, it is the NNPC that will have been the clog in the wheel of such progress. And you know also that we expected that fuel prices, especially PMS prices, will drop below N200 when Dangote was expected to come on stream.
“So, it’s unfortunate that we are still talking about over N900 and they want us to jump up and rejoice for that. That is not satisfactory. They should just let us see the breakdown of their production cost and why it’s still there. I mean, there are countries like Libya under Gaddafi that gave out PMS for free and they didn’t run anything at any loss. So, I believe that it can still go further down.”
On his part, the Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Ibrahim Rafsanjani, commended the reduction of fuel prices by the NNPC and Dangote, but said the government could still reduce the price.
“Dangote’s own is about N899 or something like that. Well first and foremost, we are happy that there is a little reduction in the prices. But also based on analysis and based on facts and evidences, we believe that it is possible for the Nigerian government to further reduce the prices.
“Because if a private company can reduce the price and it still makes profit, we wonder why government-owned enterprises cannot really pity its citizens,” he said.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced a significant growth in the country’s economy, with a 3.46% increase in gross domestic product (GDP) in the third quarter of 2024.
This marks the third consecutive quarter of expansion, up from 3.19% in Q2 2024 and 2.54% in Q3 2023.
According to the newly published Q3 economic report, Nigeria’s GDP output rose to ₦20.115 trillion, reflecting a notable improvement from ₦18.285 trillion in the previous quarter.
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The CBN attributed this growth primarily to the performance of the non-oil sector, which grew by 3.37% compared to 2.80% in Q2 2024.
The report highlighted transportation, crop production, and other sub-sectors such as financial & insurance services, information & communication, trade, and real estate as major contributors to the expansion.
The non-oil sector accounted for 3.18 percentage points of the total growth rate.
“The expansion of the non-oil sector was driven by the performance of the financial & insurance, information & communication, crop production, trade, transportation & storage, and real estate sub-sectors,” the report stated.
Despite the economic growth, challenges persist. Inflation, particularly in food prices, remains a significant concern, standing at 39.93% as of November 2024.
Rising food and energy costs have also impacted transportation expenses, with intercity bus fares increasing by 20.23% year-on-year to ₦7,117.17 in July 2024, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
Furthermore, the cost of petroleum, now exceeding ₦1,000 per litre, has driven up logistics and transportation expenses, adding pressure to households and businesses alike.
The CBN acknowledged these challenges, noting that the growth was achieved despite headwinds such as high inflation and rising operational costs.
Enhanced security measures in the Niger Delta have boosted domestic crude oil production, while restrictive monetary policies have helped moderate inflation in some areas.
“The growth recorded in the country is a result of continued efforts to improve the business environment, streamline cumbersome business processes, and deepen the quality of business infrastructure,” the CBN noted.
However, the report comes amid concerns over businesses exiting Nigeria due to persistent economic challenges.
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