(Ecofin Agency) - Angola will benefit from $165 million provided by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the institution announced in a statement issued on Wednesday.

This new loan will support the economic diversification efforts of President Joao Lourenço's government to wean the country off oil dependence. It aims to prioritize the production and export of non-oil products while gradually replacing imported products through diversification.

According to the bank, the new three-year assistance program will be based on three main axes. This will involve advancing fiscal consolidation through better public financial management and tax reforms. By the end of the program, the objective will be to accelerate the reduction of public debt from around 90% of GDP to 60%.

The second axis is to speed up the implementation of the economic diversification program. In the long term, it should gradually increase the share of non-oil products in GDP and thus minimize the impact of fluctuations in commodity prices on the economy.

Finally, it will improve governance in the management of natural resources and the reform of public enterprises. To this end, the new program is focusing on good governance, transparency and improving the performance of state-owned enterprises.

“For the past two years, we have felt that the authorities are quite committed to making changes. Many concrete measures have been taken [...] We expect that the program will ultimately impact positively on macroeconomic stability, economic diversification, and poverty reduction,” said Abdoulaye Coulibaly, AfDB director for governance and public financial management

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou