Angolan President Appoints Daughter As State Oil Firm Boss

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos
Santos has named his billionaire
daughter Isabel to head the state oil
firm Sonangol, according to a
government statement published
late Thursday.
He appointed the 43-year-old Isabel
dos Santos chairwoman of a new
board of directors of Sonangol,
after sacking the previous board
last month.
Isabel dos Santos has been ranked
by Forbes magazine as the richest
woman on the continent.
Critics say she amassed her vast
fortunes thanks to the backing of
her father who has ruled Angola
for 35 years.
In a statement Friday Isabel dos
Santos vowed that the new
Sonangol board “will work to
decrease production costs and
optimise resources in order to
increase the international
competitiveness of the Angolan oil
sector”.
The eldest daughter of the Angolan
leader, she is nicknamed the
“Princess” and is ranked Africa’s
eighth wealthiest by Forbes
magazine after building a vast
business empire.
She grew up in London, where she
studied mechanical and electrical
engineering at King’s College. Her
first business venture was a
restaurant, Miami Beach, which she
opened as a 24-year-old in Luanda.
Her wealth is estimated at $3.3
billion.
The mother of three holds a quarter
of the shares in Angola’s mobile
phone company Unitel and a
significant stake of Angola’s Banco
BIC.
She also controls 19 percent of
Portugal’s fourth-biggest bank BPI
and has bought shares in several
Portuguese companies in recent
years, including a cable television
firm.
Isabel dos Santos has recently
spread her banking empire into
neighbouring Namibia, after a
banking licence was approved by
the country’s central bank.
Angola is sub-Saharan Africa’s
second largest oil producer after
Nigeria.
But a global decline in the price of
oil has deprived Angola of vital
resources, prompting the regime of
longtime ruler President Jose
Eduardo dos Santos in April to ask
for financial help from the
International Monetary Fund (IMF).