Isabel dos Santos, the eldest daughter of Angola's
president, has become Africa's first female billionaire, US financial magazine
Forbes has said.
The 40 year old's shares in several Portuguese firms,
including a TV cable company, and an Angolan bank put her on the billionaires'
list, Forbes said.
Her first venture was a restaurant in Luanda called Miami
Beach, said the magazine that tracks the world's rich.
Most of the population in oil-rich Angola live on about $2 a
day.
Angola is striving to tackle the physical, social and
political legacy of a 27-year civil war that ravaged the country after
independence from Portugal.
The conflict ended in 2002 and Angola has since emerged as
one of Africa's leading oil producers and fastest-growing economies.
The family of President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos - who has
been in power for 33 years - controls a large chunk of that economy.
"When you tease out the ownership and controlling
interests in Angola it reads like a Who's Who of family members and party and
military chiefs," Peter Lewis, an African studies professor at Johns
Hopkins University in the US, told Forbes.
Reports say Ms dos Santos is a relatively shy public figure
despite her successful business career.
Culled from BBC
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