According to the businessmen, these practices, which are "harmful to competition", have been implemented by "many foreign businessmen" who operate in the same chain as "importers, wholesalers and retailers" of various products.
"Who are the importers? They are individuals who come here, who are supported by multinationals. They are importers, and they become wholesalers, retailers (...), it is sad, and the Government has to take action. Today, Angolans do not know how to sell oil, you will not find a company owned by an Angolan selling soap or matches", said Angolan businessman Gilberto Simão this Thursday.
Today, here in Angola, "foreign businessmen are wholesalers and also bring their workers from abroad, who become retailers", criticised the businessman, stressing that he is not against foreign investment in the country.
Speaking on the sidelines of the presentation ceremony of the Strategic Plan of the Angolan Competition Regulatory Authority (ARC) for the five-year period 2025-2029, the Angolan investor considered that there are "monopolies, hoarding and unfair competition" that must be combated.
"So, it is necessary to combat this unfair competition with measures. We are not against non-Angolans, foreigners, but the Government needs to take measures", he stressed.
Gilberto Simão, also president of the Association of Bakery and Pastry Industries of Angola (AIPPA), regretted, on the other hand, that the ARC's strategic plan does not contain measures to combat "dumping" (an unfair competition practice that consists of selling products below cost or market price), hoarding and non-invoicing.
"Dumping is a crime, this hoarding is a crime. You go to any company of our non-Angolan brothers and they don't give you an invoice, this is harmful to the Angolan economy", the businessman pointed out, considering that micro, small and medium-sized companies "are dying".
For the leader of AIPPA, the country must implement "order and discipline to combat globalization" – which brings businessmen who violate competition laws – to safeguard its economy: "Gentlemen, I have been an association leader for 40 years, I have never seen anything like it".
"We are dying, the Government must help us. Associations today are neither seen nor found", he lamented.
Gilberto Simão insisted that the Angolan business community "is being dominated by monopolies, which win public tenders, monopolize sectors, killing micro, small and medium-sized companies".
Complaints about unfair competition in Angola were also made by the president of the Angolan Industrialists' Association (AIA), José Severino, who called for the "debureaucratization" of the General Tax Administration (AGT) services in order to expand the formal taxpayer base.
"There is indeed a lot of unfair competition. And in this unfair competition, (...) it seems that it is understood that the informal market is only our beloved 'zungueiras' [informal vendors], and it is not", said José Severino.
According to the leader of the AIA, there are several sectors of the economy in Angola that operate informally, because the AGT, in its "concern to obtain revenue for the budget balance, has created systems that force a large part of the market to be unable to enter".
