The CEPA Framework
The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between the United Arab Emirates and Angola was signed in 2025 during President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed’s state visit. The agreement establishes the most ambitious bilateral trade target in Angola’s current partnership portfolio: USD 10 billion in annual bilateral trade by 2033.
This target represents a nearly fivefold increase from current trade levels. Non-oil bilateral trade between the UAE and Angola reached USD 2.17 billion in 2024, reflecting 2.6 percent growth over 2023. The first half of 2025 showed accelerating momentum, with non-oil trade of approximately USD 1.4 billion — a 29.7 percent increase over H1 2024. UAE non-oil exports to Angola stood at USD 135.6 million, reflecting the asymmetric nature of the trade relationship.
Cooperation Sectors
The CEPA covers ten cooperation areas spanning technology, finance, and natural resources:
| Sector | Strategic Relevance |
|---|---|
| Artificial Intelligence | UAE’s AI leadership applied to Angolan development |
| Banking | Financial services expansion, Islamic finance |
| Agriculture | Food security, agribusiness development |
| Tourism | Destination development, hospitality investment |
| Investment | Capital flows, sovereign wealth fund cooperation |
| Renewable Energy | Solar, wind, and clean energy infrastructure |
| Culture | Bilateral cultural exchange programs |
| Education | University partnerships, vocational training |
| Climate Action | Emissions reduction, adaptation financing |
| Technology | Digital infrastructure, smart city development |
The breadth of these cooperation areas distinguishes the CEPA from Angola’s other bilateral frameworks. While the US partnership focuses primarily on energy, infrastructure, agriculture, digital economy, and finance, and the EU SIFA emphasizes investment facilitation, the UAE CEPA encompasses AI, culture, and climate action alongside traditional economic sectors.
Trade Data: The UAE-Angola Corridor
Cumulative UAE imports to Angola from 2015 to 2025 totaled USD 5.2 billion across 376,897 transactions, making the UAE Angola’s 13th-largest import source. This positions the Emirates ahead of several European countries but well behind China (USD 25.1 billion) and Portugal (USD 20.3 billion).
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Non-oil bilateral trade 2024 | USD 2.17 billion |
| Year-on-year growth (2024 vs 2023) | 2.6% |
| H1 2025 non-oil trade | ~USD 1.4 billion |
| H1 2025 growth vs H1 2024 | 29.7% |
| UAE non-oil exports to Angola | USD 135.6 million |
| Cumulative UAE imports to Angola (2015-2025) | USD 5.2 billion |
| Annual trade target by 2033 | USD 10 billion |
The 29.7 percent growth in H1 2025 trade suggests the CEPA is already generating commercial momentum, though whether this pace can be sustained to reach the USD 10 billion target remains uncertain. Achieving the target would require a compound annual growth rate of approximately 20 percent over the next eight years — ambitious but not unprecedented for UAE bilateral trade with emerging markets.
UAE as an Investment Source
The UAE brings several distinctive capabilities to Angola’s investment landscape:
Sovereign Wealth Capital: The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), Mubadala Investment Company, and other UAE sovereign wealth funds collectively manage trillions of dollars. Cooperation between these entities and the FSDEA (USD 3.9 billion AUM) could channel significant capital into Angolan infrastructure and industry.
Logistics Expertise: DP World and other UAE logistics operators have extensive experience managing ports and free trade zones across Africa. Their expertise is directly relevant to the PROPRIV privatization of Angola’s ports and the development of the ZEE Luanda-Bengo Free Trade Zone, where the UAE is listed among 13 expansion target countries.
Financial Services: Dubai’s position as a global financial center creates channels for Angolan companies to access international capital markets. The UAE’s Islamic finance expertise also opens financing options that conventional banking does not provide.
Renewable Energy: Masdar, the Abu Dhabi clean energy company, has become one of the world’s largest renewable energy developers. UAE expertise in solar and wind energy could accelerate Angola’s electricity generation capacity, addressing one of the most significant constraints on industrial development.
Strategic Context
The UAE-Angola CEPA operates within a broader pattern of UAE economic expansion into Africa. The Emirates have signed similar partnership agreements with multiple African nations, leveraging Dubai’s position as a trade hub connecting Africa to Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
For Angola, the UAE partnership offers diversification beyond the country’s three traditional economic pillars: China (infrastructure lending), Europe/US (oil and gas investment), and Portugal/Brazil (Lusophone commercial ties). The UAE brings capital, technology, and operational expertise in sectors — logistics, renewable energy, digital infrastructure — where Angola’s other partners have been less active.
The CEPA also positions Angola within the UAE’s strategy to secure critical mineral supply chains. Angola’s 36 minerals including lithium, cobalt, copper, and graphite are increasingly strategic for the energy transition, and the UAE has been actively investing in African mining operations to diversify its own economy beyond hydrocarbons.
Challenges and Risk Factors
Reaching the USD 10 billion annual trade target by 2033 requires overcoming several obstacles:
Angola’s placement on the FATF grey list in October 2024 for AML/CFT non-compliance creates compliance challenges for UAE financial institutions, particularly given the UAE’s own recent experience on the grey list (from which it exited in February 2024). Both countries have incentives to demonstrate AML/CFT progress, which could accelerate reforms.
Inflation at approximately 27 percent annually in Angola, combined with kwanza volatility, complicates trade financing and investment planning. The UAE’s experience operating in volatile currency environments across the Middle East and Africa provides some mitigation expertise, but the fundamental macroeconomic challenge remains.
The concentration of existing bilateral trade in a narrow range of commodities means that achieving the USD 10 billion target requires developing entirely new trade flows in agriculture, manufactured goods, technology services, and tourism — sectors where bilateral trade infrastructure is underdeveloped.
Implementation and Monitoring
The CEPA’s success will depend on implementation mechanisms that translate the agreement’s broad cooperation areas into specific projects, trade flows, and investment commitments. Key milestones to watch include:
- Establishment of bilateral business councils and investment committees
- UAE participation in AIPEX-facilitated investment projects
- DP World or other UAE logistics operators bidding on PROPRIV port privatizations
- Masdar or other UAE clean energy companies entering Angola’s renewable energy market
- UAE financial institutions establishing or expanding Angolan operations
- Tourism infrastructure development supported by UAE hospitality expertise
Outlook
The UAE-Angola CEPA is the most commercially ambitious of Angola’s current bilateral frameworks. The USD 10 billion trade target by 2033 dwarfs the scale of existing bilateral commerce and requires transformative growth in non-oil trade flows. The accelerating momentum visible in H1 2025 (29.7 percent growth) provides early evidence that the agreement is generating results, but sustaining this pace requires Angola to address its structural business environment challenges — FATF compliance, inflation, judicial reform, and bureaucratic efficiency.
The partnership’s most significant long-term impact may come through sovereign wealth fund cooperation, logistics expertise transfer, and renewable energy investment rather than traditional trade flows. These areas leverage the UAE’s distinctive capabilities and address Angola’s most pressing development needs, creating potential for a partnership that extends beyond commercial exchange into structural economic transformation.
Trade Volume and Growth Trajectory
The UAE-Angola Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, signed in 2025 during President Sheikh Mohamed’s state visit, sets an ambitious target of USD 10 billion in annual bilateral trade by 2033. Current trade data demonstrates momentum: non-oil bilateral trade reached USD 2.17 billion in 2024 (2.6% growth versus 2023), with H1 2025 non-oil trade surging to approximately USD 1.4 billion — a 29.7% increase over H1 2024.
UAE non-oil exports to Angola stand at USD 135.6 million, while Angola’s cumulative imports from the UAE total USD 5.2 billion over the 2015–2025 period across 376,897 transactions — making the Emirates Angola’s 13th-largest import source.
| Metric | Value | Period |
|---|---|---|
| CEPA target | $10 billion/year | By 2033 |
| Non-oil bilateral trade | $2.17 billion | 2024 |
| H1 2025 non-oil trade | ~$1.4 billion | +29.7% YoY |
| UAE non-oil exports to Angola | $135.6 million | — |
| Cumulative UAE imports | $5.2 billion | 2015–2025 |
Cooperation Sectors and Strategic Alignment
The CEPA encompasses ten cooperation areas: AI, banking, agriculture, tourism, investment, renewable energy, culture, education, climate action, and technology. This breadth aligns with Angola’s economic diversification strategy and the PDN 2023–2027 by creating preferential access to UAE capital, technology, and market expertise across the sectors targeted for non-oil growth.
The banking and finance cooperation dimension is particularly significant given Angola’s FATF grey list placement (October 2024). UAE financial institutions, experienced in operating across multiple regulatory environments, could provide Angola’s banking sector with partnerships that help maintain international connectivity while compliance improvements are underway.
Tourism and Hospitality Linkages
Tourism cooperation under the CEPA complements the PLANATUR strategy, which targets tourism’s GDP contribution of 1.9% by 2027 with an EUR 8.23 billion development budget. UAE-based hospitality operators and tourism investors bring expertise in developing luxury tourism products and MICE facilities — relevant to Angola’s USD 100 million convention centre under construction in Chicala, Luanda.
The visa liberalization to 97 countries — including UAE nationals — removes a key friction point for tourism and business travel between the two countries.
Agriculture and Food Security
Agricultural cooperation addresses Angola’s USD 3 billion annual food import bill. UAE food security strategies, developed in response to the Emirates’ own import dependency, offer technology transfer opportunities in controlled-environment agriculture, cold-chain logistics, and food processing that align with the PRODESI program’s import substitution objectives.
Investment Fund Channels
The UAE’s sovereign wealth funds and private capital pools represent significant potential sources of investment for Angola. The FSDEA (USD 3.9 billion AUM) may find partnership opportunities with UAE counterparts for co-investment in the Lobito Corridor, mining, and infrastructure — building on the CEPA’s investment facilitation provisions and the Private Investment Law of 2018 framework.
Renewable Energy and Climate Action
The CEPA’s renewable energy and climate action provisions position the UAE — a global leader in solar and clean energy deployment through entities like Masdar — as a potential partner for Angola’s own energy transition. While Angola’s current power mix is dominated by hydroelectric generation, solar potential in the southern provinces and wind resources along the coastline represent unexploited renewable opportunities.
UAE investment in renewable energy generation within Angola would serve dual objectives: expanding power access for ZEE manufacturers and rural communities, while reducing Angola’s carbon footprint from thermal generation. The clean energy dimension also strengthens Angola’s positioning for critical minerals — demonstrating that mineral extraction supports, rather than contradicts, climate commitments.
Education and Human Capital Development
The CEPA’s education cooperation provisions target the workforce skills gap identified by the IMF as one of Angola’s key diversification obstacles. With education spending at just 2% of GDP versus the 5.8% Sub-Saharan average, Angola needs external partnerships to accelerate human capital development. UAE universities and vocational training institutions — particularly those focused on technology, finance, and hospitality — can provide training programs, scholarship exchanges, and institutional partnerships that build the skills needed for economic diversification.
Trade Performance and Growth Trajectory
Non-oil bilateral trade between the UAE and Angola reached USD 2.17 billion in 2024, reflecting 2.6% growth over 2023. UAE non-oil exports to Angola totaled USD 135.6 million. In the first half of 2025 alone, non-oil trade reached approximately USD 1.4 billion — a 29.7% increase over H1 2024, demonstrating accelerating commercial momentum ahead of the USD 10 billion annual target by 2033.
Cooperation areas span artificial intelligence, banking, agriculture, tourism, investment, renewable energy, culture, education, climate action, and technology — reflecting the breadth of economic complementarities between the two countries. The CEPA was signed during President Sheikh Mohamed’s state visit to Angola in 2025, elevating the bilateral relationship to a comprehensive economic partnership level.
Integration with Angola’s Investment Architecture
The CEPA complements Angola’s existing investment facilitation frameworks: the AIPEX Single Investment Window processes UAE project registrations, while the ZEE free trade zones are actively targeting UAE investors as one of 13 priority expansion countries. The FSDEA sovereign wealth fund provides co-investment opportunities with UAE sovereign and private capital, particularly in infrastructure and renewable energy projects aligned with the PDN 2023-2027.