Business in Angola

OUR series of audio recordings about how to do business in different parts of the world does not, sadly, include Angola. So we would direct putative visitors to an article in this week’s Economist. Luanda, the capital, sounds like a challenging destination.

Just getting around the city is gruelling. There are no taxis or public transport of any sort, bar the ubiquitous, clapped-out, jam-packed minibus taxis. So visitors have to rent a car and driver—for up to $500 a day. Driving your own car may seem sensible but streets constantly change as the city is torn down and rebuilt; signs barely exist.

Besides, you cannot avoid Luanda’s mammoth traffic jams. It can take more than two hours to drive a couple of miles along the Marginal, the city’s palm-lined coastal road. You have to get to the airport four or five hours in advance to check in for a flight, for fear of losing your seat; the opening of a new airport may ease the queues.

So you need three qualities: a smattering of Portuguese, since outside the expatriate community, few speak anything else; wads of cash, preferably dollars, since credit cards are rarely accepted, even in posh hotels; and an inexhaustible supply of patience.