With their short hair, casual style and youthful faces, sisters Beatrice and Delphinah look strikingly similar.
“Lauretta is in South Africa, studying computer games,” Beatrice explains her absence as the two sisters sit down to coffee on the beach on a Sunday afternoon.
Despite the fact that Angolan women’s magazines Caras and Caju have designated them as one of Angola’s most influential fashion labels, they make an unassuming, almost shy, first impression.
Beatrice, Delphinah and Lauretta grew up in Botswana and Namibia. Beatrice studied interior design in Cape Town, Delphinah studied economics in Namibia.
Sometime in 2001, Delphinah made a skirt that changed her life and that of her sisters.
“My fellow students really liked that skirt, so I started making denim ones for them. That same year, we launched our own label, GSquare. We even created our own model agency, with 30 male and female models,” she says.
“In the beginning it was just the two of us,” Beatrice says, “but we were soon joined by one of Delphinah’s friends. I designed and made men’s clothes, Delphinah women’s clothes. The men’s label was put on hold, but we’ll relaunch it next year.”
In 2001, GSquare won the Young Entrepreneurs Prize at the Namibian Entrepreneurs Competition. Soon afterwards, Delphinah’s friend quit.
“That’s when Delphinah, Lauretta and I launched our own label: Geraldo Fashions. It is named after our late father, who was an artist, painter and carpenter,” says Beatrice.
“We’ve now got American, German, South African and Namibian clients,” Delphinah says, “as well as Angolan celebrities.”
TV presenter and model Vania Vilèla, for instance, is the current ‘face’ of Geraldo Fashions. So are singer and Big Brother Africa reality TV star Tatiana Durao, Big Brother Africa star and Channel O presenter Weza Silva, and Angolan top model Karina Silva.
International fashion shows form an integral part of the Geraldo sisters’ business. In 2002, the Geraldo sisters participated in the Pan African Fashion Show. That same year, they were elected Best Young Namibian Designers by an international judging panel at the fashion show, Sense of Africa.
Three years after Beatrice and Delphinah moved back to Angola, their label participated in the seventh edition of the Angola Fashion Week in 2008. Geraldo Fashions was also represented at the Angola Fashion Week in 2009, 2010 and 2011. In October 2011, Geraldo Fashions participated in Luanda’s second edition of Fashion Business Angola.
“That’s the biggest fashion event in Africa, with 26 international and nine Angolan designers,” says Beatrice.
There are other high-profile events scheduled for 2012: the Swahili Fashion Week, Cape Town Fashion Week, and Mozambique Fashion Week. The Geraldo sisters also hope to participate in the next Africa Fashion Week.
Geraldo Fashions is still small. Its current annual turnover is a little less than $70,000, compared to $10,000 in the first five years of its existence. So far, neither economic crises nor Chinese or Angolan competition have got in the way.
“We’re too small for recessions to have a significant impact,” Beatrice says, “but we do compete against Angolan boutiques, which often sell very nice Brazilian and European labels.”
Beatrice, Delphinah and Lauretta have funded their entire business themselves. They started their fashion career with one manual sewing machine.
“We only bought our first electrical machines after our first official show, which left us with many new clients. Now that we’re successful, we still make all our clothes ourselves, at home. Our brand is very exclusive, and all our work is based on private orders,” says Beatrice.
The sisters buy most of their fabrics in South Africa, Namibia, Portugal and France. Silk and chiffon are among their favorites, as are feathers, fur and laces. Daring, detailed tailoring, with a wide array of colors, mark their designs.
Those who want to wear Geraldo Fashions’ exclusive designs and materials have to place a personal order. The label is no longer sold at Cape Town designer boutiques Second Time Around and Loulou Store, but the sisters are currently trying to open their own shop in Luanda instead. Their fashion items don’t come cheap.
“But they are affordable by Angolan standards,” Beatrice says. “A dress will cost you between $350 and $700.”
The sisters’ ambitions don’t stop here. Future plans include Geraldo Fashions shops in Namibia, South Africa and outside Africa, and an accessory line with jewelry and shoes.
Geraldo Fashions seems to have been born at the right time. “Our fashion has a modern African feel, for which there is an increasing demand. We see more and more people wearing national designers at events, parties, clubs and restaurants, and also in African magazines. Four or five years ago, Angolan labels were almost non-existent in people’s daily lives,” says Beatrice.

Fashionista Sistas!

<div id="attachment_162" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-162" class="size-large wp-image-162" src="/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/iStock_000013732621Large-1024x675.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="312" />Growth will be driven by government expenditure as revenues increase through higher oil production and prices</div>
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Following a remarkable run of double-digit growth, the Angolan economy took a hit in 2009 and 2010 due to a fiscal and balance of payments crisis. However, the signs of a strong recovery are in the offing and economic prospects are now looking brighter. Already all three main rating agencies, Moody’s, Fitch and Standard &amp; Poor’s, have raised the country’s sovereign rating. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects GDP growth of 3.7% in 2011, building on the 3.4% of 2010. The IMF expects growth to accelerate to 10.8% in 2012. Growth will be driven by government expenditure as revenues increase through higher oil production and prices. The IMF’s stand-by arrangement (SBA)—a credit line—which runs until February 2012, is likely to anchor macroeconomic policies in the medium-term at least.
<div id="attachment_134" style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-134" class="size-full wp-image-134" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/angola.jpg" alt="" width="350" height="376" />Growth will be driven by government expenditure as revenues increase through higher oil production prices</div>
Government expenditure will focus on massive social and infrastructural gaps in the economy. The construction sector will continue to play a central role. The mining sector is likely to get a boost as the government plans to diversify the economy away from oil and gas production, as recommended by the IMF. Angola has substantial mineral deposits which include iron ore, copper and diamonds. The mining sector was deemed unviable during the civil war and neglected. After the civil war, the sector took a back seat to oil and gas production and attracted little investment. A major development in the mining sector will be the introduction of a new mining code that is aimed at boosting investment into the sector. The code was passed by parliament in July this year and is set to come into eff­ect by year-end. The state, through its mining company Endiama, aims to play a major role and to take 51% in all diamond mines.
Infrastructural bottlenecks and robust domestic demand are likely to keep infl ation elevated in the months ahead. On the political front, the ruling Movimento Popular de Libertacao de Angola (MPLA) continues to dominate.
<div id="attachment_161" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-161" class="size-large wp-image-161" src="/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/iStock_000015823770Large-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="316" />Oil Platform offshore Angola</div>
It holds 191 of the 220 seats in parliament. The fractured opposition will only help the MPLA keep power. Elections are set for late 2012. The incumbent president, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, is expected to stay in power. In February 2010, the country adopted a new constitution whereby the president is no longer elected by popular vote; instead the president will be from the party with the most seats in parliament. The government has faced huge challenges since the end of the civil war. Poverty is still prevalent despite the country’s huge mineral wealth. Infrastructure remains poor following decades of civil war. There is discontent among the people, who feel they should be getting their fair share of economic prosperity. This discontent is unlikely to see a repeat of the “Arab Spring” on the south-west coast of Africa, though. Angolans are weary of conflict.
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Angola Rising From The Ashes Of War

In Hotel Continental’s restaurant along the bay of the Angolan capital Luanda, Russo Flora exudes energy, enthusiasm and a deep-seated faith in his country. “Angolans have a natural talent for business and commerce,” is the first thing he says. “During communism and the civil war, food here was very, very scarce.
<div id="attachment_131" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-131" class="size-large wp-image-131" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Russo-15x22.5cm-0029-683x1024.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="711" />Flora Russo</div>
We’ve learned to improvise and survive under all circumstances. To me, being an entrepreneur is to create.” Thirty-three-year-old Flora, married with one son, was born and raised in the Angolan capital of Luanda. After studying English in South Africa, he won a sponsorship from the Angolan Fishing Ministry to study civil engineering in London. In 2002, he accepted a job as a senior property consultant at English estate agency, Bairstow Eves, and soon became the best salesman at their northern office. In 2003 he became senior land investment advisor at English Land Partnership.
“All that was part of my strategy to become a property entrepreneur,” he says. But then his father, George Flora, fell ill. Flora decided to move back to Angola, where in 2006, at the age of 26 he took over his father’s small consulting-engineering firm, Gabeng. George Flora became Angola’s Construction Minister in 1984 and founded the business in 1990. Russo Flora now owns Gabeng together with his mother.
“I had to decide whether to remain a small company, or to take Gabeng to a different level and transform it into the group of companies that it is today.” Three months later, Flora closed a contract for an infrastructure and sewage network in Luanda, called Projeto Morar, worth $600,000. It was a tall order for a company with few engineers. “I used to wear the contractors’ boots in the morning, take a quick shower, and then put on my engineers’ suit.
I was also our consultant and commercial director.” His hard work paid off. “When I took over in 2008, Gabeng was turning over between $120,000 and $300,000 a year. Six years later, my group of four companies is turning over between $700,000 and $2 million annually.” Flora’s early success further triggered his entrepreneurial creativity. “In 2006, I founded LF Construction.” After roughly four months, Flora closed a contract of $900,000 to do major excavation works in Viana and Barro do Dande, for the construction of two municipal hospitals.
<div id="attachment_157" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-157" class="size-large wp-image-157" src="/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/RTR2EG45-1024x595.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="275" />ANGOLA-CENBANK</div>
That same year Flora set up a topographic engineering company, TopoEng. In 2008, LF Construction closed a partnership with Chinese company AC-YAUNG Group. Angola receives huge, oil-backed loans from China to help finance postwar reconstruction projects, carried out mostly by the Chinese. Flora “decided to catch the wave rather than swim against the tide”, which paid off. They built a large logistical base for TeleService in Soyo province for 300 “low-income, decent-sized” houses for Angola’s war veterans. Flora is confident about the potential of his company: “I believe LF Construction is our future.”
Flora’s fourth company, ITO, is not yet officially registered. “With big construction projects, I often ended up managing small construction works such as kitchens, done by others. So I decided to do that myself.” ITO comes with important side benefits, he explains. “In Angola, people don’t know who to call, who to trust. That’s where ITO comes in. You never know whose door you might walk into. It might be a successful businessman who offers you a big contract, which has already happened.” Condominium management, an upcoming market in Angola, will become one of ITO’s focus areas.
Being an entrepreneur in Angola is not a picnic. In the World Bank’s Doing Business in 2011 report, Angola ranks 163 out of 183 economies for Ease of Doing Business. “We have great problems in terms of electricity and water supply. So first buy a generator and a water reservoir,” says Flora. “Then there is a lot of bureaucracy involved in importing goods via the harbor. Road access and traffic jams are problematic, the latter mainly in Luanda… I believe in time management. One of my most innovative ideas was to have a fully-equipped mobile office in my car.” Finding skilled Angolan labor is also extremely difficult, according to Flora.
“If you want properly trained people, you’re often forced to employ expats, and they’ll cost you three or four times more. Our solution is to outsource work to other foreign companies in Angola.” At the same time, Flora uses 70% Angolan labor. On Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, Angola ranks among the world’s 10 most corrupt countries—168 out of 178. “Corruption is still a big issue in developing countries,” Flora says, “Competition here is tough and often unfair. But at least it’s transparent. People tell you: ‘Listen, if you don’t have good connections here, forget it.’entities.
“Everything we’ve done is thanks to sweat and hard work. If I had strong ties with the truly influential people here, then maybe we would be having this conversation in my private jet.” According to him, Angola is entering a new era. “The government is tackling corruption,” he says. “And I do not foresee any new civil war or political instability.” With Flora’s positive outlook, the sky is the limit. “Within LF Construction I’m opening a food division. We want to buy big quantities of fish and transport those to the most remote rural areas of Angola, where fish prices are extremely high.”
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“The fishing industry is one of Angola’s monopolies,” he explains. “Foreign ships come in, suck up huge quantities of fish and transport them back to their own countries. But the fish you find in Angolan supermarkets has all been imported.” Flora encourages all entrepreneurs to take a close look at Angola. “Angola is a rich country, and there are dividends to be made. Anywhere you go you can either plant, build, or mine something.”

Tag: Angola

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