Angola’s new Regulation of Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Companies Law

The criteria that classify a company as micro, small or medium-sized are provided in the Micro, Small and Medium-sized Companies Law, and the classification is obtained in the act of registration.

This Regulation aims to:

• Simplify and accelerate the administrative treatment of the proceeding through which Micro, Small or Medium-sized Company status is required;

• Permit greater transparency in the definition of Micro, Small and Medium-sized Companies in the context of the different supports and programs made available by public entities and the Angolan Government;

• Ensure the existence of an adequate and complete information regarding these companies, available to the interested public entities;

• Assure that rules and supports directed to Micro, Small and Medium-sized companies only benefit companies which really have this status;

• Permit multipurpose certification in different services.

It is important to remember that Micro, Small and Medium-sized companies have access to a simplified proceeding for its constitution, which may be held in multiple institutions, namely in the “Guichet Único da Empresa”, a one-stop shop in which all the proceedings regarding the constitution of a company may be performed in a single site and at the same time.

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Micro, Small and Medium-sized companies have easiness in accessing to credit, namely with the existence of a credit access support service, which may be divided in the following assistances:

• Receipt of the credit request;

• Analysis and characterization of the application proceeding;

• Support in the constitution of the credit file;

• Assistance in the negotiation with financial institutions;

• Supervision of projects whose financing was approved.

With regard to the labour field, Micro, Small and Medium-sized companies shall send information annually about their employment relationships, filling a form approved by the Ministerial Department responsible for the Labor Sector.

After the first year of economic activity, Micro, Small and Medium Companies are obliged to inform their dismissals and new hires to the Ministry responsible for the Labor Sector.

Another benefit established for this type of companies is that when an inspection discovers any legal infringement for the first time, there is a tolerance, being these companies only notified to start complying with the breached rules. In other words, they are not punished at the first time in which they infringe a regulation.

In addition to the purposes of simplification and fighting the excessive bureaucracy, this new Regulation intends to facilitate the dynamization of the Micro, Small and Medium-sized companies sector, which is seen by the Angolan Government as essential for the growth and diversification of the Angolan economy.

Article by Marco Correia Gadanha

Marco Correia Gadanha
Marco Correia Gadanha is a partner of the Portuguese law office MC&A. He is specialised in legal advice to international transactions. Marco has extensive experience of legal practice in Portugal and in the Portuguese-speaking African countries. Since 2008, he has practiced mainly in the areas of labor and litigation, assisting national and international clients in these and other matters, namely corporate law, especially in Portugal, Angola and Mozambique. He graduated at the University of Coimbra in 2005 and he holds post-graduations in Labor and Angolan Law.