Africa’s wealthiest people have come from different walks of life to shape the continent, and over the years, their influence has kept expanding to represent the continent on a global stage.
The story is no different in Angola, where wealthy individuals proclaim the country’s name to the world. We will consider Angola’s multimillionaires here and look into their reach.
1. Isabel dos Santos
The majority of people know her as the eldest daughter of José Eduardo dos Santos, the former head of Angola who presided from 1979 to 2017. But in addition to that, she is a successful businesswoman. She formerly had the title of the ‘wealthiest woman in Africa’, according to Forbes magazine, Although Ms Isabel’s name was later cleared last year after her assets in Angola, Portugal, and the Netherlands were blocked due to claims that she owed $340 M to the Portuguese company PT Ventures. -Her net worth at the time was $2 billion.
Dos Santos began working as a project management engineer for Urbana 2000, a Jembas Group subsidiary that had been awarded a contract to clean and disinfect Luanda, in the early 1990s. She then established a trucking company. The walkie-talkie revolution set the stage for later forays into the telecom industry. While she was still working on it, she went ahead and opened the Miami Beach Club,
Dos Santos was chosen by her father to lead Sonangol, the national oil corporation of Angola, in June 2016. Shortly after taking office, Joo Lourenço, the new president of Angola, removed her, ending the contentious appointment that followed similar arrangements of the president’s children to important positions.
Since 2008, Dos Santos has invested in a number of significant Portuguese businesses, including the media, retail, finance, energy, and telecommunications. She shares substantial investments in Portuguese Galp Energia with the Angolan national oil company Sonangol through their joint European Law holding, Esperanza Holding, which is headquartered in the Netherlands. [54] A founding member and board member of Banco BIC Português, which recently bought nationalized bank Banco Português de Negócios, is Dos Santos.
2. Antonio Mosquito
Mr Mosquito is a well-known figure in Angolan political and business circles. Grupo Antonio Mosquito (GAM), one of the biggest privately held conglomerates in Angola, is owned by him. It should be noted that GAM is the proprietor of Falcon Oil, a business engaged in energy development and commerce.
He also has stock in Global Media Group, one of the giant media conglomerates in Portugal, and he is in charge of BAI Micro Financas, an Angolan financial institution.
Mr Mosquito initially became wealthy from oil exports and vehicle distribution, and for many years he worked as an Audi and Volkswagen distributor in Angola. Then, he joined the infamous businesswoman Isabel dos Santos and her father’s company as a partner in business (and a rumoured proxy).
3. Agostinho Kapaia
One of Angola’s most significant and fastest-growing conglomerates, Grupo Opaia S.A., was founded by Agostinho Kapaia. The 2012-founded Grupo Opaia S.A. has interests in agriculture, finance, civil infrastructure, renewable power technologies, drinking water systems, and tourism. The $80 million (annual revenue) corporation has locations in Miami, Lisbon, Sao Paulo, Guangzhou, and Luanda in addition to its Luanda headquarters.
The Angolan administration has awarded contracts worth more than $150 million to Op aia’s construction division throughout recent years. The company’s agricultural division currently produces the most grains in Angola and owns over 80,000 hectares of farmland. Antonio Mosquito, one of Angola’s wealthiest men, is the uncle of Kapaia.
4. Zandre Campos
ABO Capital, a private equity firm with global holdings in healthcare, agriculture, transportation, energy, technology, hospitality, education, and real estate, was founded by Zandre Campos and is currently led by him as chairman and CEO.
Campos was the CEO of Nazaki Oil & Gas SA, an Angolan oil exploration and production business before establishing ABO Capital.
He was formerly the CEO of the mobile phone business Movicel Telecommunications.
Significant investments in Uncharted Power, a power and data infrastructure technology firm, Onna, a San Francisco-based data integration platform, and ETG, one of Africa’s most prominent merchants and processors of agricultural goods, are owned by ABO Capital.
5. Joaquim David
He is a founding member of Somoil SA, which came into existence in 2000.
The oil business now operates two blocks in the Lower Congo Basin and produces close to 16,000 barrels of oil per day. In addition, Somoil has a negligible presence in Angola’s petroleum distribution.
Looking back at his career, David began his career in the late 1970s as an oil engineer with Petrangol and Texaco.
In 1982, Sonangol, the state-owned oil firm of Angola, appointed him divisional chief.
He received a promotion to the director general of Sonangol in 1989, during which time he remained in that capacity until 1998.
