Américo Ramos

Américo d'Oliveira dos Ramos is a São Toméan banker and politician who has served as the prime minister of São Tomé and Príncipe since 12 January 2025. He previously served as the governor of the Central Bank of São Tomé and Príncipe, and he has also worked for the Ministry of Finance.

Biography From São Tomé and Príncipe, Ramos studied abroad at Moscow State University in Russia, where he received a degree in economics after having attended from 1989 to 1995. He then returned to São Tomé and joined the Ministry of Finance, where he worked as a budget technician from 1995 to 1998. In 2010, Ramos became the São Tomé Minister of Finance, a position he held until 2012. After he spent three months in the country's central prison, he was acquitted by the public prosecutor's office.

In December 2022, Ramos was appointed governor of the Central Bank of São Tomé and Príncipe. On 6 January 2025, President Carlos Vila Nova dissolved the government of prime minister Patrice Trovoada, for a "remarkable inability to resolve the country's many challenges," and ordered the Independent Democratic Action (ADI) party to present candidates for prime minister within 72 hours. Trovoada responded calling his dismissal "illegal" and "unconstitutional". On 9 January, the president selected Ilza Amado Vaz to be the next prime minister. However, just three days later, on 12 January, she announced her resignation from the office. The Supreme Court of Justice declared that the president's firing of the cabinet was unconstitutional and outside the head of state's powers but it wouldn't have any retroactive effect rendering the decision meaningless. The majority of the parliament made up of ADI adopted a resolution to keep Ramos in power ahead of the presidential and parliamentary elections.