Angola’s economy is highly concentrated around the oil industry, which comprises
about a third of its GDP and around 95 percent of exports, despite the global
downturn and decrease in oil prices.1 Oil revenues and oil-backed loans have
allowed for large-scale state investments in the construction and rehabilitation of
public infrastructure, including the implementation of an ambitious housing
programme to meet the country’s massive housing deficit, which is growing rapidly
in a context of rapid urbanisation. Currently Angola is said to be one of the fastest
urbanising countries in Africa with more than 62 percent of its population living in
cities.2