Angola will be pushing ahead with scrapping all fuel subsidies by the end of 2025, to possibly enable state oil company Sonangol to pay taxes and dividends once more, according to a statement by the country’s finance minister Vera Daves de Sousa.
Plagued by rising debt costs and high pump prices, governments across Africa are trying to remove the pricey benefits, but the measures are unwelcomed and have led to discontent in some countries including Senegal and Nigeria.
In October, Daves de Sousa informed Reuters that the entire removal of fuel subsidies might be delayed beyond the 2025 deadline ending, after their ‘skewed’ removal sparked dangerous demonstrations.
“We will be able to see Sonangol normally paying taxes, (enhancing) profits and paying dividends to the state,” Davis de Sousa had said.
Sonangol imports refined petroleum products to the southern African OPEC country which it trades locally at a decreased price with the government meant to repay the difference. The company had last paid a dividend in 2019, the same year the government established an enterprising privatisation program.
