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President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has appointed Valter Filipe Duarte da Silva as the new governor of the Angolan central bank, the Banco Nacional De Angola (BNA).

Da Silva succeeds Jose Pedro de Morais, whose appointment was terminated “at his request,” according to a statement released by the president’s office last weekend. De Morias was appointed BNA governor in January last year.

According to Reuters, Da Silva is a little-known figure in financial circles and had been working as a lawyer in the vice-president's office. His appointment was announced together with a cabinet reshuffle involving the ministers of housing, health, commerce, construction, and culture.

Angola, Africa’s second-largest oil exporter after Nigeria, has been adversely affected by the slump in oil prices, which has fallen by nearly 70 percent in the past 20 months. The Angolan kwanza, which has fallen for eight consecutive years, fell by over 24 percent in 2015, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

On January 4th, the BNA devalued the kwanza by 13 percent in an attempt to reduce the difference between the official kwanza rate and the black market rate. But this move caused inflation to spike to 17.59 percent in January, its highest level since December 2005. The BNA left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 12 percent on February 29th.

Just like Nigeria’s central bank, the BNA has imposed a strict foreign exchange regime, restricting forex sales to essential sectors and businesses as well as curbing foreign currency transactions. The Angolan foreign reserves stood at $24.17 billion as at July 2015.

Last year the Angolan government trimmed its budget by nearly 30 percent and said it would borrow over $25 billion. Oil accounts for nearly 50 percent of Angola's GDP, 80 percent of government revenues and 95 percent of the country's exports.

Moody’s, the rating agency, has placed Angola’s Ba2 credit rating on review for downgrade to assess the credibility and sustainability of the government’s plans and its ability to mitigate the impact of the slump in oil prices.