A court in Angola has ordered the assets of Angolan and Africa’s richest woman to be frozen for anti corruption reasons.
Isabel Dos Santos is according to Forbes, Africa’s richest woman, with a net of over 2 billion USD. She is the daughter of former Angolan president José Eduardo Santos who ruled the country from 1979 to 2017.
Isabel who was born in 1973, became the first billionaire (in US dollars) woman in Africa, in 2013 according to Forbes.
In 2016, she was appointed by her father to take over Angolan state oil company Sonagol as well as Diamond marketing firm Sodiam. The president’s decision to appoint daughter as head of both companies was met with a lot of controversy by Angolans.
After Eduardo retired as president of Angola, he chose Joao Lourenço as new president of the Country. President Lourençosince he took over immediately stripped Isabela from managing theboth companies.
According to reports, the a court under the president’s supervision /administration has been ordered to freeze her accounts and assets.
Reports have it that the country are looking forward to reclaiming $1billion USD from Isabela and that is why her accounts have been frozen.
The other assets included in this order that have been seized and frozen include her stake in telecoms company Unitel and bank Fomento de Angola (BFA). Isabel dos Santos currently oversees a big business empire with stakes in Portuguese and Angolan companies, including cable TV outlet Nos SGPS. She has choosen to live abroad as she says she doesn‘t believe her safety in Angola is guaranteed.
Her brother, José Filemino Dos Santos is also currently facing an anti corruption trial.
However, Africa’s wealthiest woman believes time will tell as she explains what she thinks in on twitter after her accounts and assets were frozen and has advised all her workers and people linked to all her companies not to give in to what is happening. She said:
“Faced with this politically motivated spoliation attempt, I have encouraged my teams and all the families linked to the fate of my companies not to give in to doubt nor to discouragement. We will continue working with commitment, that has always been at the heart of our success“
https://mobile.twitter.com/isabelaangola
“My companies employ thousands of employees in Angola, providing well-paid jobs with good benefits. We have contributed over 200 million dollars in taxes. We provide over 20.000 jobs, and we support over 30.000 small businesses. #ibelieveinangola” she added.
According to the 46 year old, she has never been favored by her father but believes she merits and has been transparent in her business dealings.
