According to an analysis of the country's legal environment, sent to clients, and to which Lusa had access, this consultant, owned by the group that also owns the financial rating agency Fitch, writes that these difficulties "increase the probability of financial losses" for investors.
"In addition, the protection of intellectual property rights is poorly applied, resulting in potential losses for companies threatened by intellectual rights violations or piracy," the consultant says.
In the report, Fitch Solutions analysts write that "there is now more room for improvement in the legal environment due to the rapid pace of reforms that President João Lourenço has been printing, following his election campaign promise to fight corruption and reduce the monopoly that several public companies have in a wide variety of sectors" of the economy.
However, they warn, "Angola has one of the weakest legal environments in the southern African region, mainly due to the very high levels of corruption in all public institutions and the inefficient and expensive judicial system".
The result, they point out, is that "if an investor is involved in a commercial dispute in the Angolan judicial system, he is unlikely to have a fair trial, with the process likely to be slow and expensive".
In the corruption-specific part of the report, Fitch Solutions analysts say that "elites and politicians act with impunity in their business, and accusations of corrupt figures are usually reserved for politicians who have 'fallen into disgrace' [to those in power] or certain rival political interests.
Thus, they warn, "investors face a significant risk of high costs and poor accountability when using the courts, which presents itself as a major obstacle to foreign investment" in the country, where "nepotism and corruption are other constraints on free competition, allowing individuals with strong political connections to hold significant economic power".
For Fitch, this "not only limits the ability of smaller players to participate in the market, but also increases the risk of bribery and corruption in the distribution of public contracts".
The document also warns that "any progress made by President João Lourenço regarding corruption will be slow, with years of corruption under dos Santos's regime [concerning the presidency of José Eduardo dos Santos, between 1979 and 2017] probably taking years to reverse".
Angola ranks 27th out of 201 states analysed in Fitch Solutions' Operational Risk Index, and 164th out of 176 states analysed globally in the perceived corruption indices, and is also the first "in the list of the most corrupt countries in the southern African region," analysts recalled.
