Sixteen licensed brokers and 21 settlement agents now intermediate transactions on the Bolsa de Divida e Valores de Angola (BODIVA), up from single-digit counts when the exchange launched government bond trading in 2018. The institutional architecture of Angola’s capital markets is compact but functional, built around four pillars: a single regulator, a single exchange, a single central depository, and a bank-dominated intermediary layer. Understanding who does what – and where the boundaries of authority lie – is essential for any investor or counterparty entering this market.

The four pillars

1. CMC – Comissao do Mercado de Capitais (Securities Market Commission)

The CMC is Angola’s independent securities regulator, established under the Codigo dos Valores Mobiliarios (Lei 22/15) and reporting to the Ministry of Finance. Its mandate covers:

• Licensing: Granting and revoking licenses for all capital markets intermediaries, including brokers (SCVMs and SDVMs), settlement agents, custodians, collective investment scheme managers (SGOICs), and auditors
• Prospectus approval: Reviewing and authorizing all public offerings, including IPOs, bond issuances, and secondary offerings
• Market surveillance: Monitoring trading activity on BODIVA for manipulative conduct, insider dealing, and other market abuses
• Disclosure enforcement: Ensuring that listed companies and fund managers meet ongoing reporting obligations, including annual financial statements, material event disclosures, and shareholder notifications
• Investor protection: Maintaining a complaints mechanism and conducting financial literacy initiatives in coordination with BODIVA

The CMC board comprises a president and up to four commissioners appointed by presidential decree. For a detailed profile of the regulatory framework, see the CMC regulatory overview.

2. BODIVA – Bolsa de Divida e Valores de Angola (Securities Exchange)

BODIVA is the sole regulated securities exchange in Angola, operating the Sistema Electronico de Transaccoes e Informacao de Cotacao (SETIC) – the electronic order-matching and trading platform through which all secondary market transactions are executed.

Key functions:

• Order matching: Continuous auction for equities; request-for-quote and continuous trading for fixed income
• Price discovery: Publishing real-time and end-of-day pricing for all listed instruments
• Listing management: Admitting securities to trading, maintaining listing requirements, and enforcing ongoing corporate governance standards
• Index calculation: Computing and publishing the BODIVA All-Share index and sector sub-indices
• Market data distribution: Providing trade and quote data to participants, media, and data vendors

BODIVA itself became a listed company in 2024, completing an IPO that offered 20% of its equity to the public. This self-listing was designed to enhance transparency and align the exchange operator’s governance with the standards it imposes on its issuers. For BODIVA’s own equity profile, see the BODIVA company page.

3. CEVAMA – Central de Valores Mobiliarios de Angola (Central Securities Depository)

CEVAMA is Angola’s sole central securities depository, responsible for the immobilization and dematerialization of all securities traded on BODIVA. Operationally, CEVAMA performs four critical functions:

• Custody: Holding all instruments in electronic book-entry form. No physical certificates exist in the Angolan market.
• Registry: Maintaining the definitive register of ownership for all dematerialized securities, including shareholder identity and holding quantities.
• Settlement: Executing the delivery-versus-payment (DVP) process on a T+2 cycle, ensuring simultaneous and irrevocable transfer of securities and cash.
• Account management: Administering the 58,389 custody accounts (contas de custodia) that constitute the investor base as of year-end 2024.

CEVAMA launched in 2016, three years before BODIVA commenced trading. This sequencing was deliberate – establishing the depository infrastructure before exchange operations ensured that the plumbing was tested before any transactions flowed through it. For the full settlement process, see the settlement and clearing guide.

4. BNA – Banco Nacional de Angola (Central Bank)

The BNA’s role in the capital markets is threefold:

• Issuer: The BNA acts as agent for the Ministry of Finance in the primary issuance of government securities, including Bilhetes do Tesouro (T-Bills) and Obrigacoes do Tesouro (T-Bonds). Government debt dominates BODIVA activity, accounting for approximately 84% of total value traded in 2024.
• Monetary policy transmission: The BNA uses open market operations – including repos and reverse repos executed on BODIVA – to manage banking system liquidity and transmit its policy rate (taxa BNA) to the broader economy.
• Foreign exchange regulation: The BNA regulates foreign investor access to the capital markets through avisos (directives), most notably Aviso 15/19, which exempted securities transactions from the CEOC foreign exchange tax.

The BNA does not regulate the securities market directly – that function belongs to the CMC. However, the BNA’s decisions on monetary policy, FX regime management, and government debt issuance calendars have an outsized impact on BODIVA volumes and pricing. For the latest on BNA policy, see the monetary policy section.

Licensed brokers

Brokerage licenses are issued by the CMC in two categories:

SCVMs (Sociedades Corretoras de Valores Mobiliarios) – Execution-only brokers that act purely as agents. They cannot take proprietary positions or underwrite securities offerings.

SDVMs (Sociedades Distribuidoras de Valores Mobiliarios) – Broker-dealers authorized to both execute client orders and trade on their own account (carteira propria). SDVMs may also participate in underwriting syndicates for new issuances.

The 16 licensed brokers as of 2024 are overwhelmingly bank-affiliated. Notable intermediaries include:

Most bank-affiliated brokers benefit from integrated onboarding – existing bank clients can open brokerage accounts with minimal additional documentation, often within 24-48 hours. This has been a significant driver of the custody account growth observed since 2022.

For a complete list of all licensed brokers with contact details and service offerings, see the brokers directory.

Settlement agents

Twenty-one settlement agents (agentes de liquidacao) are licensed by the CMC to facilitate the cash leg of securities settlement. In practice, nearly all settlement agents are commercial banks that also hold brokerage licenses, creating vertical integration across the trade lifecycle from order execution through custody and settlement.

Settlement agents perform the following functions:

• Maintaining client settlement accounts (contas de liquidacao) for cash management
• Transmitting settlement instructions to CEVAMA on T+1
• Ensuring cash availability for the DVP process on T+2
• Processing dividend, interest, and redemption payments to custody account holders

The dual role of banks as both brokers and settlement agents is a feature, not a bug, of Angola’s market design. It reduces counterparty complexity and leverages the existing banking infrastructure – particularly the BNA’s real-time gross settlement system (Sistema de Pagamentos em Tempo Real, SPTR) – to ensure settlement finality.

Collective investment scheme managers (SGOICs)

A small but growing number of Sociedades Gestoras de Organismos de Investimento Colectivo (SGOICs) hold CMC licenses to manage collective investment vehicles, including unit trusts (fundos de investimento) and pension funds. These entities are becoming increasingly important as the CMC introduces regulations requiring pension funds and insurance companies to allocate portions of their portfolios to listed securities.

For details on licensed SGOICs, see the fund managers directory.

Auditors

All listed companies on BODIVA must appoint an external auditor from the CMC’s registry of approved firms. The Big Four accounting firms maintain a presence in Angola – Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and PwC all operate through local affiliates – and handle the audit mandates for the largest issuers. The CMC also registers a number of domestic audit firms qualified to serve smaller listed entities and licensed intermediaries.

For the full auditor registry, see the auditors directory.

How participants interact

The trade lifecycle involves a clear chain of responsibility:

1. Investor instructs their broker (SCVM/SDVM) to place an order
2. Broker submits the order to BODIVA via SETIC
3. BODIVA matches the order and confirms the trade to both counterparties
4. CEVAMA validates trade details and initiates the DVP settlement process
5. Settlement agents ensure cash availability and transmit settlement instructions
6. CEVAMA executes irrevocable DVP on T+2, transferring securities and cash simultaneously
7. CMC monitors the entire chain for compliance with Lei 22/15 and subordinate regulations

This architecture, while still maturing, mirrors the structure found in more developed African capital markets such as Nigeria (NGX/CSCS) and Kenya (NSE/CDSC), and reflects deliberate alignment with international standards promoted by IOSCO and the World Federation of Exchanges.