AmCham Angola Monthly — Public Edition — March 2026
In March AmCham Angola put constructive proposals for eight sectors to President João Lourenço, took a focused tax and customs agenda to AGT and welcomed Banco YETU.
AmCham Angola brings U.S. and Angolan companies together to make doing business in Angola more predictable. In March we did that at three levels. The Chamber wrote to His Excellency President João Lourenço with practical proposals across eight sectors and a request for standing mechanisms for dialogue between Government and the private sector. With AGT, the General Tax Administration, we took a focused agenda of seven tax and customs topics to our monthly working meeting, and our Sub-Tax Committee set its priorities for the months ahead. In the business community, we welcomed a new member bank, hosted a networking evening and followed a U.S. engineering school's visit to Angola.
Dialogue with Government
Proposals for eight sectors put to the President of the Republic
18 March
AmCham Angola's President, Eng. Pedro Godinho, signed and filed a letter to His Excellency President João Lourenço on solutions for the private sector and on institutional cooperation to improve the business environment. It asks for the President's support for standing working mechanisms between Government and the private sector, and for an audience at which the Chamber can present its proposals. An annex sets out constructive recommendations for eight sectors, from infrastructure, energy, critical minerals and the Lobito Corridor to agriculture, health, banking, the digital economy, light industry, and tourism and culture.
Tax and fiscal advocacy
A focused agenda for the tax authority
3 March
The Sub-Tax Committee, working with the Big Four advisory firms, prepared its next session with AGT. Its starting point was AGT's published press release on its 25 February meeting with business associations, announcing that lifting a suspended tax number (NIF) would become automatic within 30 days and that VAT refunds would be improved in the same period. The Committee agreed seven priority topics, from portal notifications and electronic invoicing to VAT refunds and the new 5% minimum customs duty, and clearer working methods: agendas a week ahead and the relevant AGT departments in the room.
Working meeting with AGT
18 March
The monthly working meeting with AGT took place online and was opened by Denis Barbosa of AGT's Large Taxpayers directorate. The Chamber presented its seven priority topics, with the emphasis on clarity and predictability in portal and audit procedures. The meeting was constructive and the dialogue is open: future sessions will alternate between general themes and specific company cases. The next session was set for April.
From individual cases to policy
31 March
Taking stock of the first quarter, the Sub-Tax Committee agreed that the monthly channel with AGT should continue, both to follow cases and to build an evidence base. Because many issues stem from policy design and the legal framework, it will also take them to policy level through formal position papers framed around investment, liquidity and the business climate. VAT refunds lead the list, followed by audit procedures, guarantee requirements and NIF blocking, each with concrete proposals such as maximum refund timelines.
Business community and partnerships
Banco YETU joins the Chamber
March
Banco YETU joined AmCham Angola in March as a Corporate Exclusive member. The bank strengthens the Chamber's banking, finance and capital markets pillar, one of the eight sector pillars around which the Chamber organises its work with the U.S.–Angola Working Group. We look forward to working with the Banco YETU team in our committees and at our events.
Business networking evening
12 March
Members and partners met on 12 March for a business networking evening, the second event in the Chamber's 2026 First Thursday series after the February event with the Minister of Tourism and UNDP. The series gives U.S. and Angolan companies a regular place to meet one another and the institutions they work with. "A Hora da AmCham", the Chamber's programme on Rádio LAC, covered the evening.
A U.S. engineering school visits Angola
Late March
A delegation from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, a leading U.S. engineering school in Indiana, visited Angola at the invitation of PDPT, the Angolan not-for-profit that brings U.S. universities to the country. It was received by the Vice President of the Republic and the Minister of Higher Education to discuss a possible presence in Angola, with a partnership track involving Universidade Agostinho Neto. "A Hora da AmCham" covered the visit on 25 March.
Why it matters for business in Angola
- The private sector's proposals for eight sectors are now before the Presidency, together with a request for standing mechanisms for dialogue.
- Companies facing VAT refund, NIF or audit questions have a monthly working channel with AGT, and the recurring issues are moving to policy level.
- U.S.–Angola business links are widening beyond energy, into banking, education and tourism.
What members get
A standing channel with the tax authority
Members bring their tax cases to a standing monthly channel with AGT, held every second Wednesday through 2026. Through the Sub-Tax Committee they help set the agenda, work alongside the Big Four advisory firms and can have their own cases heard in company-specific sessions. Members also shape the Chamber's proposals to Government through the Policy Committee and its eight sector sub-groups, from the Lobito Corridor and critical minerals to tourism and culture.
Welcome to our new members
- Banco YETU — Corporate Exclusive member; banking, finance and capital markets
Coming up
- Through 2026 — AmCham Angola First Thursday business networking series continues
- 18–22 April — Visit of Pope Leo XIV to Angola
About AmCham Angola
The American Chamber of Commerce in Angola (AmCham Angola) is a non-profit membership organisation founded in July 2017. Its mission is to develop commerce between the United States and Angola, to promote the interests of U.S. companies and of its members, and to improve Angola's business environment. It receives no financial assistance from any government, is governed by an elected Board of Directors and works through its committees and forums: we advocate, connect, inform and fight for Angolan and U.S. business growth.
AmCham Angola is an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C., the world's largest business organisation, founded in 1912 under President William Taft and representing more than three million companies. That affiliation links members in Angola to the U.S. Chamber's networks, including the U.S.–Angola Working Group, and places AmCham Angola among the 21 American Chambers of Commerce in Africa.
What the Chamber does: inward and outward trade missions; networking breakfasts, receptions and business luncheons with ministers, officials and industry leaders; advocacy through position papers, policy comments and structured dialogue with the Angolan Government; off-the-record CEO forums; conferences, workshops and webinars; and the weekly radio programme “A Hora da AmCham” on Rádio LAC.
Join AmCham Angola
Write to us: amchamangola@amchamangola.org · www.amchamangola.org/become-member