“Our focus is on finding a mechanism to accelerate the privatization process of the state’s indirect holdings in these entities through the stock market,” Dos Santos said in comments broadcast by state-owned Radio Nacional de Angola on Feb. 7.

The companies are among 26 state-owned firms and assets earmarked by the government for disposal this year as Angola tries to attract foreign investment, increase transparency and diversify the economy away from oil.

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Angola would join other developing economies that are taking advantage of increased appetite for riskier assets after largely being shut out of international capital markets since 2022 because of rising interest rates in advanced nations.

Benin issued a debut dollar bond this week that was oversubscribed by more than six times, Ivory Coast sold its first eurobond in almost seven years in January and Kenya has announced plans to sell new securities.

The Angolan government nationalized Unitel in 2022 after taking control of the shares held by Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of former President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, and of an army general in the Luanda-based firm. Unitel has a 72% share of the southern African nation’s mobile-phone market.

Angola’s asset-management agency IGAPE is the direct trustee of 50% of Unitel’s shares, with the other half controlled by Angolan state oil firm Sonangol. Unitel also holds a 51.9% stake in Banco de Fomento Angola.

In 2019, the government announced a list of 195 assets for disposal as part of Angola’s biggest-ever privatization program. Dos Santos, who is also deputy coordinator for Angola’s privatization program, did not say when the long-delayed sale of stakes in national oil company Sonangol EP and diamond firm Endiama will take place.

Angola’s economy is forecast to expand 2.8% in 2024, compared with “very shy growth” last year, Finance Minister Vera Daves de Sousa said on Jan. 17.