GPPi fellow quoted in Financial Times piece on Angolan oil governance

Lecturer at the University of Oxford and GPPi Fellow Ricardo Soares de Oliveira was quoted in a Financial Times article titled Angola offers timeframe for Sonangol shake-up published on October 11. The article focuses on Angola’s state oil company, Sonangol, and potential sweeping reforms that may take place in the next five years. These reforms would consist of Sonangol losing its status as an alternative finance ministry as well as handing over its regulatory authority to the government, among others.

Sonangol has long been criticised in the west over the lack of transparency in its handling of Angola’s vast oil resources and its role as an autonomous government fief with quasi-fiscal powers. Soares de Oliveira remarked, ​“It is an extremely cosmopolitan, efficient company… but its competence and sophistication have never been put at the service of Angolan development. It has been an instrument of the futungo [the presidential clique] serving the interests of the presidency.” The articles concludes by stating that there can be few better ways, according to analysts, of proving the government’s commitment to openness than by reforming Sonangol.

Soares de Oliveira has recently authored a research paper entitled ​“Business Success, Angola-Style: Postcolonial Politics and the Rise of Sonangol” which will be published in Issue 4 of the Journal of Modern African Studies later this year.