Angola

Starting a Business in

Angola

Listed below is a detailed summary of the bureaucratic and legal hurdles an entrepreneur must overcome in order to incorporate and register a new firm, along with their associated time and set-up costs.  It examines the procedures, time and cost involved in launching a commercial or industrial firm with up to 50 employees and start-up capital of 10 times the economy's per-capita gross national income (GNI).

The information appearing on this page was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 183 economies. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2011.

  • Standardized Company

  • Legal Form: Sociedade por Quotas de Responsabilidade Limitada (LDA)
  • City: Luanda

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Search for a unique company name and pick up the relevant certificate

The company name can be verified at the commercial registry (Ficheiro Central de Denominações Sociais), affiliated with the Ministry of Justice.
To obtain the company name certificate, an application (with copy of identification attached) must be filed with the one stop shop (Guiché Único das Empresas), as follows:
1. State the company’s proposed name.
2. Request the issuance of a certificate, confirming that such name is acceptable and is not similar to any existing company name.

Fees for company name certificate:
- Form: AOA 500.
- Certificate: AOA 24,090.
1 day AOA 500 + AOA 24,090
2 Deposit the legally required initial capital in a bank and obtain deposit evidence; pay the registration fee

The Kwanza amount equivalent to USD 1,000 will soon become the minimum share capital required for the incorporation of a limited liability company (Sociedade por Quotas de Responsabilidade Limitada), according to the new Companies Law, recently approved by the Angolan Parliament and due to be published in the Official Journal. For such corporate form, notaries require an amount equivalent to about USD 135.
1 day no charge
3 Verify the company documents at the Guichet Unico

This procedure takes place in the Guichet Unico. The clerks and the Judges are sitting in cubicles facing each other. Companies have 2 options; either to resort to lawyer services to draft the company documents or to fill in the standards documents. If the company decides to use the standard statutes of Association from the Guichet (2 pages), it takes 1 hour at most. The applicant just enters the information (ID info of associates, address, activities of company) and confirms that the articles are applicable to the type of company as the guichet has 4 different types of statutes. In the case statutes are prepared by a lawyer, the process might take 1/2 to 1 day for lawyers to review. However, in this case company documents are more detailed and thus documents' rejection is unlikely.
1 day the fees are included in the company registration fees
4 Obtain NIF at Guichet Unico

Once documents are verified and completed, the applicant apply to the station of the Direccao National dos Impostos to obtain NIF, where all taxes and fees one must pay are calculated. This service is free of charge and does not take more than 15 minutes. However, the tax fees is 25595 Kz. The tax fee vary according to the sector on which the company will operate.
1 day tax fees included in next procedure
5 Notarize company draft documents, register the company and pay registration fees at Guichet Unico

The applicant submits the dossier to the Notary Public at the Guichet Unico. Once the Notary reviewes and notarizes the dossier, he will have a reading with the applicant present or the accredited person to ensure there are no mistakes. There are 3 conference rooms with projectors which allow all the associates to see the text and make modification. This service fee is included in the Guichet fees and takes a day depending on room availability and complexity of the company’s Articles of incorporation. After this lecture, the notary makes copies and send to each of the agencies involved a copy for approval and filing. The centralized post distribute these to the representatives of Impresa National, National Institute of Statistics, Tax office of the Ministry of Finance, Social Security Institute and the Ministry of Public Administration, Employment, and Social Security. Each agent from each institution is in charge of sending the files to his/her agency, but this doesn't impede on the process of registration. For Impresa national, the receipt is sufficient to continue the process. Despite the fact that law says documents should be published before getting the license to operate, the system at Impresa National makes it unlikely for daily or weekly publication, therefore the Ministry of Commerce uses the receipt as proof. The fees for these services are included in the Guichet Unico’s cost. The time for this process depends on the presence of various agents and the complexity of the case. Each of the organizations sited above have a representative within Guichet with authority to deliver the accreditation that the step has been accomplished. Obtaining the final document (except the publication in the Official Gazette) would take 4 days (on average). Fees are paid at the bank counter of banco BAI within the Guichet to facilitate payment of the different fees. Each agency and fees goes to a specific account and payments can be made cash or by card.


4 days 25,000 AOA Guichet Unico fees+ registration in the conservatoria 100002 AOA + 12000 AOA statistics institute + 20000 AOA Impresa National ( fixed cost) + 10 AOA social security + 132730 AOA Notary fees + 25595 AOA taxes fee
6 Obtain the Commercial Operations Permit from the Ministry of Commerce

To carry out commercial activities in Angola, a company must obtain a commercial operations permit (alvará) from the Ministry of Commerce. To apply for the issuance of the commercial operations permit, the following documents must be filed with the Municipal Delegation of the Ministry of Commerce: (a) company’s notary deed of incorporation; (b) copy of the tax identification card; (c) commercial registration certificate; (d) statistical registration certificate; (e) extracts from the criminal record of the founders; (f) opinion, by the relevant administrative authority, on the company’s geographical location and social and economic feasibility; and (g) a photocopy of ID or passport. For the issuance of the commercial operations permit, one requirement is for the relevant administrative authorities to inspect the company’s premises to confirm they are suitable for commercial activities.
60 days USD 1,000
* 7 Legalize the inventory and diary books with the Tax Office

The inventory and diary books are taken annually to the Tax Office for registration of the annual accounts.
1 day (simulteneous with previous procedure) USD 3
* 8 Legalize the inventory and diary books with the judge of the provincial court having jurisdiction over the area of the company’s headquarters

The registration book of the minutes of the General Assembly meetings must be registered with the Tax Office (USD 0.0125 cents per page) and the Provincial Court (USD 0.67 cents per page). After the registration of any such minutes in the book, it should be registered with the notary public (USD 17 per shareholder signature).
1 day (simulteneous with previous procedure) USD 20
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.
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