Claudia Santos Cruz, partner of Morais Leitão and vice-chair of the IBA African Regional Forum, highlighted Portugal’s role as a strategic platform for international investment into Africa in an interview published in the IBA Daily News during the International Bar Association’s Annual Conference.
“Portugal’s buoyant economy and ties to Lusophone Africa make it a perfect launching point for businesses considering African investments,” said Claudia Santos Cruz, emphasising the country’s growing attractiveness to foreign investors.
Investment opportunities in Africa: energy, transport, and renewables
With offices in Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde and Singapore, Morais Leitão provides on-the-ground legal support in key African jurisdictions. According to Santos Cruz, “Mozambique is set to become an African energy powerhouse aiming at universal energy access by 2030, massive LNG exports, and a domestic energy boom to power economic growth domestically.”
In Angola, she noted, “we are seeing the construction of the Lobito Atlantic Railway which will connect Angola to Zambia by train,” a project that “will also enable regional distribution across Africa.” Angola also continues to attract significant oil and gas investment, while Cape Verde offers “significant investment opportunities in renewables” as well as real estate, infrastructure and port development.
Morais Leitão’s Singapore office reflects the increasing role of Asian investors in African projects: “Morais Leitão also established a Singapore branch office, initially to support one of our long-standing clients – EDP Renewables, the 4th largest renewable company globally – but which is quickly now becoming a gateway for Asian investment into Africa.”
Long-term vision, local structure, and risk awareness
While the opportunities are significant, Claudia Santos Cruz cautioned that success depends on a well-structured, long-term approach: “These are not markets where you can get things done quickly. It’s a long-term game. Setting up your infrastructure in a compliant manner is fundamental and investors need to accept that return on investment will take longer to achieve but these returns are generally higher than in maturer markets.”
She also warned that “some of these markets are also susceptible to forex challenges as well as global energy volatility,” and that “thinking that they can enter and replicate their Global North investment strategies just won’t work in the Global South.”
Portugal as a springboard to the Lusophone world
Claudia explained that “Portugal has double taxation agreements (DTAs) and bilateral investment treaties (BITs) with all of these countries, which means it is an attractive jurisdiction for investors to incorporate SPVs as a springboard into Africa.”
Portugal also offers practical legal and tax benefits. The Madeira Free Trade Zone is described as “a leading white flag in the international shipping sector”, and “most Portuguese banks are also established in Lusophone Africa offering project companies integrated banking solutions which helps alleviate investor forex concerns.”
Portugal is also gaining relevance as a neutral arbitration seat: “Many clients also prefer to seat their arbitrations in Portugal for example, in construction or trade disputes, as a neutral seat.”
Read the full interview here.
