Africa-Press – Angola. More than two million and five hundred thousand Angolan workers pay for Social Security, said this Thursday, the Minister of State and Head of Civil Affairs of the President of the Republic, Adão de Almeida.
Adão de Almeida was speaking on behalf of the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, at the XV Meeting of Ministers of Labor and Social Affairs of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries, which took place in the municipality of Catumbela, province of Benguela.
He highlighted that the National Social Security System, particularly the mandatory social protection, is structured to protect workers and their dependents in situations of vulnerability and, namely, lack or reduction of work capacity, maternity, accidents and occupational diseases, unemployment, old age and death.
It is in this context that the Minister of State revealed that just over two million and five hundred thousand workers make their Social Security discounts, with around 225 thousand taxpayers registered.
When presenting the state of Social Security in the country to ministerial delegations from Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and Timor who participated in the event, Adão de Almeida detailed that, currently, they are assisted About 184,000 citizens are entitled to pensions, including old-age and survivor pensions.
For the official, the overall numbers of the Angolan Social Security system impose a deep reflection on its sustainability and the potential to fulfill, in the medium and long term, the social role that is reserved for it, based on the age profile of the population and the weight of the informal economy in the national economy.
The Angolan population is mostly young and continues to grow, as emphasized by the Minister of State, adding that the conditions are being prepared for the next population census to be carried out in 2024.
That is why he highlighted the projections of the National Institute of Statistics (INE) that point to around 34 million inhabitants in 2023, expected to double by 2050, when a total of almost 68 million inhabitants is projected.
“According to the same projections, in 2050 around 35 million inhabitants will be between 16 and 60 years old and only 4.5 million will be over 60 years old”, he reinforced.
In his view, if, on the one hand, the structure of the age pyramid offers the advantage of having more citizens contributing than benefiting from social security, on the other hand, it imposes the challenge of the employability of such a large economically active population.
The Minister of State defended that continuing the path of growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is essential to face the challenge of employability.
Likewise, he considers the figures for the last two years to be quite encouraging, which put the Angolan economy on the rise, after a period of recession, having grown by around 3% in 2022.
It’s just that, for that senior official of the Angolan Government, only a growing economy is capable of generating jobs.
Weight of the informal economy
Citing data from INE, he made it known that the informality rate in the economically active population is slightly above 75%, which, in his view, poses challenges for the future of Social Security.
This is because, as he reinforced, as a rule, those who are in the informal sector of the economy do not pay for Social Security, therefore not being a potential future beneficiary.
However, he pointed out that a social security system that tends towards the existence of more beneficiaries than contributors, or in which a substantial part of the economically active population is not a contributor due to exercising informal activity, is not sustainable.
In other words, he argued, a high demographic growth rate, a high youth population and a high rate of informality in economic activity require innovative and creative solutions under penalty of disruption, in the medium/long term, of the Social Security system.
For this reason, he explained that the Angolan government has conceived and is implementing the Program for Reconversion of the Informal Economy (PREI), which allowed, between 2020 and 2022, to formalize the economic activity carried out by around 250,000 agents.
The objectives are, among others, their enrollment in the national social security system and, ultimately, to protect these citizens in the future.
Even so, he also underlined that “it is not enough to formalize”. It is necessary to create the necessary conditions and incentives so that citizens who carry out low-income economic activity understand the benefits of registering with Social Security.
On the other hand, he recalled that a legal regime was recently approved on the formalization of enrollment in the social security system of citizens who carry out low-income economic activities.
He also made it known that, at the initiative of the President of the Republic, as holder of the Executive Power, the discussion in the National Assembly is in its final phase, with its final approval expected in the coming days, the new General Labor Law.
The new diploma, according to the Minister of State, resulted from a wide and inclusive public debate, with the direct participation of the most different trade union centrals and several business organizations.
The expectation is that, with the new law, a more balanced relationship between worker and employer will be achieved, ensuring a better relationship between both, capable of promoting employment and well-being.
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