According to Fo/rbes, her real time Net Worth as of September 24, 2016, was $3.3 B/illion.
She’s Isabel dos Santos, Afric/a's richest woman according to Forbes 2016 re/search. Her rise to stard/om is a truism of John Mason's assertion: “The world makes room for a person of p/urpose.”
Accord/ing to Forbes, her real time Net Worth as of September 24, 2016, was $3.3 Billion.
Rocky Path to Greatness
Born on April 20/th, 1973 in Baku, Azerbai/jan SSR, Isabe/l dos Santos had one goal: to make impact in what many ta/gged “the men's world.” Though she was born with a silver spoon in her mo/uth as the daughter of Angola's long serving President, Jose Edua/rdo dos Santos, she chose to follow the rocky path.
“I am not finan/ced by any state money or any public funds. I don't do that. I always had this wi/sh to stand alo/ne and not be in my parents’ shadow,” she said in a rec/ent interview with the Wall Street Journal, while react/ing to critics, who hinted she is flouri/shing under the influ/ence of her father’s wealth.
Her journ/ey to greatness kick-started at King's College in London where she studied elec/trical engineering, and latter bagged Ba/chelor of Arts/ Science degrees.
In the early 1990s, Isab/el dos Santos returned from London to join her father in Luanda and star/ted working as a project manager engineer for Urb/ana 2000, a subsidiary of Jembas Group that won the cont/ract for the cleaning and disinfe/ction of the capital.
Consumed by a pa/ssion to succeed, she set up a trucking business which served as her be/drock before she joined the telecomm/unications world.
At 24, she star/ted her first business by opening the Miami Beach Club, one of the very fir/st night clubs and beach restaurants on the Luan/da Island in 1997.
In a space of 20 years, the busi/ness mogul had expanded her business interests to garner several holdings in A/ngola and mostly abroad even as she surged interest in maki/ng invest/ments in established enterprises, notably in Portugal.
Since 2008, she has m/ade relevant investments in telecommunicat/ions, finance, media, retail and energy industry both in Ang/ola and in Portugal.
From 2009 to 2012, her shar/es increased exponentially, investing heavily in Telecomm/unications and financial services both in Angola and ab/road.
Unexpectedly, her inves/tments only took only few time to manifest and since then, enc/omiums as well as awards have not stopped t/rickling in.
In 2007, the busin/ess guru was described by Portuguese daily news/paper, Publico as a good businesswoman, very dynamic and intelli/gent, who’s also professional and friendly.
In December 2014, the Togolese maga/zine African Top Success named Isabel dos Santos as “African of the Year” dusting off comp/etition from five opponents from the conti/nent.
In Novemb/er 2015, BBC named her as one of the 100 most /influential women in the world for her leading role in the economy and develo/pment of the African continent. And that's our dream, make Africa a place like any/where else in the world.”
Little wonder an anonym/ous philosopher quipped: “It may be in seemingly unim/portant things that a man expresses his passion for perfection, yet they will co/unt heavily in the long run.”
At 43, and happily marr/ied to Sindika Dokolo from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with three children, Isabel dos Sant/os is unarguably one of the best women to have graced the African continent.
