Angola CBDC Tracker

Angola is in the research phase, per reporting in Bloomberg. However, very little has been reported elsewhere. Therefore, it is likely Angola is very early in its research efforts.

Human Rights and Civil Liberties Concerns

Angola earned a 28 out of 100 in Freedom House’s 2023 Freedom in the World report. The country faces issues spanning unlawful killings, inhumane punishments, and worse. However, within the context of the issuance or adoption of a CBDC, the most relevant issues are restrictions on opposing voices and corruption. A CBDC in Angola could worsen these issues.

The U.S. State Department reported that “Civil organizations and politically active individuals, including government critics, members of opposition parties, and journalists, complained that the government monitored their activities and membership on social media and allegedly used spyware to monitor their whereabouts and telephone conversations.” Furthermore, these “groups also frequently complained of threats and harassment based on their affiliations with groups that were purportedly or explicitly antigovernment.” Unfortunately, a CBDC could be used as another tool in this effort. Across the world, governments have often turned to freezing and seizing the money of activists, political rivals, and protestors to undermine the opposition. A CBDC would make such initiatives easier by allowing governments to take direct control of each citizen’s finances.

Freedom House reported that “corruption and patronage have become entrenched in nearly all segments of public and private life” in Angola and “Government operations are generally opaque.” The U.S. State Department added that “Reporting on corruption, poor governance, and human rights abuses were the primary reasons for attacks against journalists, which occurred with impunity. Journalists reported more incidents of violence, harassment, and intimidation compared with the previous year. Other journalists reported harassment by authorities while covering peaceful demonstrations and election rallies.” The existence of pervasive corruption is a major concern with CBDCs because it calls into question any promises that might be made by the government to limit surveillance, control, or other risks of CBDCs. Furthermore, the existence of corruption calls into question whether CBDC policies might be designed to exert political favoritism through subsidies, price controls, or other targeted restrictions.

For additional information on concerns regarding violations of human rights and civil liberties, see the following reports by Amnesty International, Financial Tyranny Index, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, Privacy International, and the U.S. Department of State. For additional information on concerns regarding the risks of CBDCs, see the following webpage and report by the Cato Institute: The Risks of CBDCs and Central Bank Digital Currency: Assessing the Risks and Dispelling the Myths.

For additional information regarding metrics, the methodology page explains each of the data points and provides their respective sources.