Few days after President Bola Tinubu announced the removal of fuel subsidy in Nigeria, Angola followed suit.
Gatekeepers News reports that after the country’s cabinet meeting on Thursday in Luanda, the country’s capital, Angola’s Minister of State for Economic Coordination, Manuel Junior said the subsidy reduction will take effect from Friday.
According to a report by Bloomberg, Junior said this would lead to an increase in the price of petrol from the current 160 kwanzas (about $0.27) per litre, to 300 kwanzas (about $0.51) per litre.
The price change represents an 87.5 percent rise, starting from 1.00 am, on Friday.
The Minister said subsidies on other petroleum products, such as diesel, cooking oil, and gasoil (a type of diesel), will remain unchanged.
He added that the removal of petrol subsidy is “a necessary measure to promote solid economic growth capable of addressing the serious problems facing the country”.
Junior said Angola’s expenditures on fuel subsidies amounted to $3.8 billion in 2022.
On her part, Angola’s Minister of Finance, Vera Daves said removing the petrol subsidy was a sovereign decision of the Angolan state and was not influenced by external pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
According to a government report obtained by Xinhua, Daves had put forth a proposal for a phased reduction of petrol subsidy beginning in the second quarter of 2023.
The report also recommended a gradual and progressive removal of the subsidy on diesel and illuminating oil prices, with the process projected to last until 2025.
According to data compiled by Globalpetrolprices.com, Angola has the fourth-lowest petrol prices in the world ($0.28) after Libya, Iran, and Venezuela.
According to a report released on May 11 by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Angola is Africa’s top crude oil producer, with production averaging 1.06 million barrels per day in April.
The country’s petrol subsidy cutback comes at a time when Nigeria, Africa’s major oil-producing country, is experiencing post-subsidy realities.
