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Services
OVERVIEW
EDUCATION
The tertiary sector of the economy (also known as
the service sector or the service industry) is now
the largest and fastest-growing sector in developed
countries. It can include activities related to Health,
Education, Transport, Finance, Real Estate, Con-
sulting, Legal Services, Tourism, Environment and
more. Services, also known as “intangible goods”
may include attention, advice, experience and pro-
cess. They can be directed to corporate business as
well as to individuals or the community.
In Angola, services represented over 30% of GDP
in 2009 according to the IMF and the World Bank.
Evolution GDP composition by sector in %
The Angolan economy has grown exponentially and
is likely to follow the same trend in the coming years,
notably thansk to excellent perspectives in oil and
gas and the development of non-oil activities. There-
fore, the needs of individuals and corporate will con-
tinue to grow likewise, creating countless numbers of
opportunities in developing tertiary activities.
Moreover, the demand is already exceeding the of-
fer: it is not rare to find companies that have grown
too fast. Despite having duplicated their turnover in
the past years, many of them face structural issues
to meet the growing demand, mainly due to a lack of
qualified human resources.
Effectively, Angola is short of qualified profession-
als. To compensate, skills have been imported and
foreign companies have been contracted to imple-
ment major projects. As unemployment rate stands
over 35%, there is an immediate need to train the
unskilled Angolan population.
The key for the succesfull develoment of the country
lies in the investment in human resources develop-
ment.
Nonetheless, the Angolan market is trying to catch
with the international standards of quality to grow in
a sustainable way, driven by the demanding require-
ments of the oil and gas industry.
Source : IMF and World Bank
Agriculture
Industry
Services
17,9
40,8
41,2
5,7
72,1
22,2
9,1
58,1
25,2
9,6
65,8
24,6
10,2
59,0
30,8
Sector 1990 2000 2004 2008 2009
Among the numerous services to be developed, ac-
tivities related to environment are worth to be men-
tionned.
Angola has a unique wealth of biodiversity. Scien-
tists agree that Angola’s biodiversity is one of the
largest on the continent.
Angola is the second richest country in Africa in
terms of endemic plants: among the estimated 5,000
plant species in the country, about 1,260 are en-
demic. The diversity of mammals is also one of the
richest on the continent. Forests occupy about 35%
of the country’s territory while the coastline of over
1,650 km is rich in various fish species. However,
the recent trend of environmental degradation poses
a threat to fish resources, over-exploitation of plant
species, soil erosion, and the pollution of soils, wa-
ter and the atmosphere as well as climate change
vulnerability, raising concerns about inherent risks to
environmental sustainability.
Another sector worth to be explored is the refuse
disposal. At the present moment, there is an obvi-
ous lack of service in recycling the annual 700,000
tons of disposal. In addition to the obvious sanitary
concerns, no value is created out of the waste man-
agement activity that has generated US$ 120 Bn in
OCDE countries in 2005. It has been estimated that
80% of the disposal in Luanda are composed of po-
tentially recyclable material.
In the public services segment, health and edu-
cation sectors show improvements according to
the UNICEF report by the end of June 2010. The
country still has to improve in terms of nutrition, sex
equality, children’s mortality, malaria and increasing
control for AIDS. Indicators show that challenges re-
main in childhood health and nutrition while 44% of
the population is below a minimum dietary energy
requirement.
Regarding education matters, the government has
expanded compulsory and free primary education to
6 years, reformed curricula and invested heavily in
the reconstruction of the school network and in the
recruitment of teachers. Between 2002 and 2006,
official numbers report an increase of the number of
schools by 143%. In that same period over 70,000
new teachers were recruited. Close to 70% of edu-
cational expenditure is allocated to pre-primary and
primary education.
Secondary education is under a significant transfor-