The President of the Association of Companies Providing Services to the Angolan Oil Industry (AECIPA) argued in favor of commercial banks providing financing to oil sector operating companies as a way to help them gain consistency and strength in order to better serve the national economy.
In statements to Angop, Bráulio de Brito made this consideration when discussing the Legal Regime on Local Content, in which he deemed the non-existent financial capacity of national companies as “worrying,” hindering their desire to evolve on par with major foreign companies.
“What we would like, in an ideal scenario, is to have the banking sector complement the real estate funds that have been emerging in our country.
We cannot work exclusively with one or the other; the banking sector, given its role and presence in our sector and the national economy, should always be a partner, especially for service providers, but so should real estate funds,” he said.
Bráulio de Brito revealed that AECIPA has been creating a communication platform, establishing opportunity mechanisms, “both in terms of banking and the emerging real estate funds or others being created, so that we can truly introduce an improvement in the financial capacity of companies.”
He added that with financial support, companies can become technologically robust enough to “be competitive because without competitiveness, we do not have services efficiently, which forces us to always rely on the effectiveness and efficiency of foreign companies.”
In his view, national companies need to be more competitive, more efficient, and “result in greater financial capacity to be able to compete in the market and provide the excellent service required, not only in the oil and gas sector but in any industry.”