Angola: Unitel hit by cyberattack a day before BODIVA stock market debut

Unitel said on Tuesday, July 28, it had detected a cyberattack against its technology infrastructure, just 24 hours before its shares were due to be admitted to trading on the BODIVA exchange. The operator, which claims more than 21 million customers in Angola, said it identified the incident at around 2:20am local time. The attack disrupted voice, mobile data and internet services across the entire country.

🔔 Follow our WhatsApp Channel for real-time news updates.

In a statement, Unitel said it had immediately activated its response and containment mechanisms and mobilized its technical and cybersecurity teams to contain the incident and gradually restore services, which remain affected at this stage. The company gave no information on the origin of the attack or on any possible data exfiltration.

The incident comes at a particularly sensitive moment for the operator, whose shares are due to be admitted to trading this Wednesday, July 29, on BODIVA’s stock market, following its public share offering. Unitel would become the first non-financial company listed on the Angolan exchange. The Angolan state sold 15% of the operator’s capital, or 7.5 million shares, for 300.3 billion kwanzas, about $327 million, at the top of the indicative price range of 40,040 kwanzas per share. The offer, which closed on July 24, was oversubscribed by 21%, with more than 11,000 investors participating, according to figures released by BODIVA.

The deal is the largest initial public offering in the history of Angola’s capital market and forms part of the PROPRIV privatization program driven by President João Lourenço. Unitel was nationalized in 2022 after the state seized stakes held through Vidatel and Geni, linked to Isabel dos Santos.

As of this writing, neither BODIVA nor the CMC has issued a separate statement announcing any delay to the trading admission, which remains scheduled for Wednesday. According to the operator’s 2025 annual report, Unitel claims 20.8 million customers and a 76% market share in Angola, where it also operates in Sao Tome and Principe and Cape Verde. It remains to be seen whether the outage, which is affecting both individual and business customers, will be resolved before trading opens, and what effect it will have on how new shareholders perceive the country’s biggest-ever stock market listing.