Angola’s Central Bank Puts Limits on Foreign Currency Purchases
Angola’s central bank capped foreign currency purchases by residents at $5,000 in a further attempt to reduce the African nation’s dependency on the dollar.
Residents who are traveling abroad and can produce a valid passport with visa and an airline ticket can buy as much as $15,000, a statement on the National Bank of Angola’s website said today. The bank also said exchange bureaus could buy foreign currency at rates “freely negotiated” with clients.
Until now, exchange bureaus had to offer the official exchange rate, currently at 92.502 kwanza to the dollar, while street venders offered about 99 to the U.S. currency. Most Angolans buy dollars from money changers on the street.
The announcement comes two weeks after the central bank told commercial banks that they had until 2012 to value 80 percent of their capital in the kwanza. The banks are currently allowed to have 100 percent of their capital in foreign currency.
The central bank also said today that it wants the number of Angolans with bank accounts to increase by 20 percent in two years. The country, which is rebuilding from a 27-year civil war that ended in 2002, is aiming to have 1,000 commercial bank branches by then, it said.
“The banking rate is still low, at 11 percent,” central bank Governor Jose de Lima Massano said in a statement on the bank’s website. “The level of financial education needs to improve.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Candido Mendes in Luanda, Angola at cmendes6@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.
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