Africa-Press – Angola. The Angolan central bank announced today that it will subsidize 30%, in the provinces of Luanda and Icolo e Bengo, and 100%, in the 38 municipalities of the country without access points to financial services, the installation of 122 automatic teller machines.
The National Bank of Angola (BNA) presented today, in Luanda, the Expansion Program of the Automatic Teller Machine (AC) Network, which aims to increase the population’s access to financial services, reduce asymmetries in the geographical layout of these equipment, as well as reduce dependence on physical branches.
According to the director of the BNA Payment Systems department, Cristina Caniço, each piece of equipment costs between 10 million and 12 million kwanzas (between 9,500 and 11,500 euros).
In his speech, the governor of the BNA, Tiago Dias, said that citizens’ preference for liquidity stems from the informal context of the Angolan economy, the asymmetry in the distribution of ATMs, as well as the concentration of salary payments at the end of the month, factors that contribute to the agglomeration of bank consumers at these terminals.
Tiago Dias said that data from Emis, the company that manages the Multicaixa [Multibanco] network, indicate that 448 billion kwanzas (430.1 million euros) were withdrawn from ATMs last month.
“Bank transfers in the same period amounted to 607 billion kwanzas (582.8 million euros) and payments for various services amounted to 82 billion kwanzas (78.7 million euros), while the value of payments to the State, through RUPE [Single Reference for Payment to the State], was around 40 billion kwanzas (38.4 million euros),” said Tiago Dias.
The governor of the Angolan central bank highlighted that BNA data indicate that the amount of notes and coins in circulation in Angola, on May 30, 2025, corresponded to 871 billion kwanzas (836.3 million euros), with around 650 billion kwanzas (624.1 million euros) corresponding to notes held by the public and 221 billion kwanzas (212.2 million euros) in commercial bank cash.
“Our medium and long-term vision is that, following the example of several African countries, alternative payment instruments to physical money, that is, electronic transfers, payment cards and mobile payments, are widely accepted and used by the population,” he stressed.
Until this happens, added Tiago Dias, conditions must continue to be created for access to and use of financial instruments and products, which in the current context of the Angolan payments system are the most sought after and used by the population.
The BNA conducted a pilot program, between 2023 and 2024, to expand the ATM network in the municipality of Viana, which culminated in the installation of 69 terminals in different areas of that region.
The program, which lasts ten months and has a deadline for installing the equipment until February 2026, has the support of seven commercial banks.
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