The number of active internationally-branded prepaid cards fell by 6% between March 2024 and 2025. Spending dropped by 168 billion Kz in Q1. Angolan spending abroad using internationally-branded prepaid cards issued in Angola fell by 55% in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year, according to Expansão’s calculations based on statistics from the National Bank of Angola’s (BNA) Payment System.
This decline—both in the amount of money spent and the number of transactions carried out—is directly linked to the access restrictions and usage limits on internationally-branded prepaid cards that commercial banks began to impose around April 2024, due to difficulties in accessing foreign currency, explains economist Heitor Carvalho. He emphasizes that the difficulties in obtaining foreign currency played a decisive role in this scenario. “There is no foreign currency available, and as a result, many restrictions were imposed on the use and loading of the cards,” he argues.
Due to the restrictions imposed by the banks, there was also a 6% drop in the number of active internationally-branded prepaid cards between March 2024 and 2025, as many banks stopped issuing new cards.
Heitor Carvalho also believes that there has been a significant reduction in income, and citizens are less able to send money abroad. In addition, he explains, there appears to be a decline in activity from foreigners due to restrictions on foreign currency outflows—whether for purchases or profit repatriation. “Although there is no quantitative data to support these two perceptions, I believe these factors may have contributed to the current scenario,” he said.
According to BNA statistics, by March 2025 Angolans had spent approximately 135.8 billion Kz in transactions using prepaid cards issued in Angola—168 billion less than in the same period last year. These 135.8 billion Kz were spent in 3.5 million transactions, which also fell compared to the same period last year, with a 25% decrease. In the first quarter of last year, spending with prepaid cards abroad totaled 303.9 billion Kz (39% of the total for that year) across approximately 4.7 million transactions.
Thus, the previous upward trend in the value and number of transactions using internationally-branded prepaid cards, seen since 2021, has reversed. To put it in perspective, throughout last year, spending with prepaid cards abroad reached 773.5 billion Kz across 16.2 million transactions—the highest amount in the last 10 years and the second-highest number of transactions recorded—indicating continuous growth in the number of users abroad as well as increased business volume related to the use of these cards. Most of the money was spent in the first quarter of 2024, after which a slowdown in usage was observed.
Source: Expansão
