Author: Congo Times

A New Interface Shaping B2B Supply Chains In the port city of Pointe-Noire, long synonymous with hydrocarbon exports, the local tech scene has quietly taken centre stage. SOSEP Groupe, an emerging digital-logistics specialist operating in both Congo-Brazzaville and the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, has introduced Joukwa, a mobile and web-based application designed to streamline business-to-business procurement. During a press briefing on 16 July 2025, Operations Lead Abiguel Massouka portrayed the tool as a “strategic partner” capable of solving chronic frictions such as delayed shipments, fragmented tracking and foreign-currency payment bottlenecks. His colleague, Communication Officer Ame César Sehossolo, underscored the…

Historic Context of the Health Council Created in 1984 during President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s first administration, the National Health Council spent four decades in relative dormancy before its revival in 2021. The second ordinary session, held in July 2025 at Kintélé, thus carried both symbolic and operational weight. Prime Minister Anatole Collinet Makosso framed the gathering as a decisive moment for social cohesion, arguing that no economic dividend can be harvested without a healthy population. His statement echoed the Presidency’s broader development vision, encapsulated in the current National Development Plan, which earmarks public health as a strategic growth sector (Government…

Continental Imperative for Energy Sovereignty Rarely has the African energy discourse been so sharply focused on financing as in the past two years. With the International Energy Agency estimating that Africa requires up to $50 billion annually to meet rising demand for electricity and clean fuels, policy makers have become increasingly vocal about the need for home-grown solutions (Oxford Institute for Energy Studies 2024). The joint proposal by the African Petroleum Producers Organization and Afreximbank to create the Africa Energy Bank is perhaps the most ambitious response yet, designed to marshal domestic capital at scale while preserving the sovereign decision-making…

Brazzaville’s Midnight Transfer of Power Shortly before the stroke of midnight on 14 August 1960, the gardens of the colonial governor’s residence—today’s Palais du Peuple—became the discreet epicentre of a geopolitical repositioning whose consequences still reverberate across Central Africa. Against a backdrop of velvet darkness and the subdued fragrance of frangipani, Prime Minister-cum-priest Fulbert Youlou and French Minister of Cultural Affairs André Malraux exchanged formal instruments of authority. The timing was meticulously calibrated so that Youlou’s inaugural words—“Our accession to independence is realised in peace and unity, in complete accord with France” —would fall on 15 August, the feast of…

Oldenburg Derby Win Bolsters Northern Ambitions In Lower Saxony, VfB Oldenburg seized regional bragging rights with a narrow 1–0 victory over SV Meppen, a result that elevated the club to third place in the fiercely contested Regionalliga Nord. Congolese winger Aurel Loubongo Mboungou, deployed on the left flank, was instrumental in stretching the opposition’s back four and drawing fouls in advanced zones. While the final touch came from German striker Max Wegner, local commentators credited Loubongo Mboungou’s “relentless verticality” for tilting the derby (Nordwest Zeitung). The performance strengthens the 24-year-old’s candidacy for a return to the Red Devils’ senior squad…

Sanitation Surge Sets a New Tone in the Capital The Congolese capital has rarely looked as orderly as it did this August. Days before the 64th anniversary of Independence, Minister of Urban Sanitation, Local Development and Road Maintenance Juste Désiré Mondélé toured Brazzaville’s main arteries and market districts and awarded the ongoing “operation spéciale d’assainissement et de déguerpissement” an encouraging “assez bien”. While the rating is cautious, the optics were unmistakable: freshly swept boulevards, informal stalls pushed back to allocated zones and pedestrians reclaiming sidewalks along the emblematic Denis Sassou Nguesso and Alfred Raoul avenues (government communiqué, 14 Aug 2023).…

Continental Arbitration Spotlight on FECOHAND Vote Brazzaville’s sporting community woke up on 15 August to a rare intersection of judicial urgency and competitive anticipation. The Congolese Handball Federation (FECOHAND) is scheduled to elect its new executive on 16 August 2025, yet a petition for provisional suspension lodged before the Chambre de conciliation et d’arbitrage du sport (CCAS) may force a pause only hours before ballots are cast. The application was filed by counsel for contender Avicenne Nzikou after the candidate’s list was declared ineligible by the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) on 14 August. Similar eleventh-hour challenges have arisen in other…

Brazzaville and UNICEF at a Diplomatic Crossroads When Foreign Minister Jean-Claude Gakosso welcomed Mariavittoria Ballotta, the newly appointed UNICEF Representative to the Republic of Congo, the encounter carried significance extending well beyond the courtesies of protocol. In a region where demographic dynamics are rapidly reshaping economic and social agendas, the alignment between the Congolese administration and the United Nations Children’s Fund arrives at a pivotal juncture. According to the official communiqués released in Brazzaville, both interlocutors emphasised the need to translate the government’s Vision 2025 and the National Development Plan into tangible improvements in child welfare, in consonance with the…

Political Stability Ahead of the 2026 Presidential Election When closing the sixth ordinary administrative session of the fourth legislature on 13 August, Senate President Pierre Ngolo chose his words carefully, yet firmly. “Protecting and consolidating our democracy by recognising the sovereign right of the people to the final arbitration must remain the priority,” he stated to an audience of lawmakers, diplomats and journalists in Brazzaville. His exhortation aligns with President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s oft-repeated view that social cohesion remains the indispensable precondition for development. Regional observers from the Economic Community of Central African States note that the Republic of Congo…

High-stakes compliance in Central Africa From Douala to Libreville, Central African capitals are paying closer attention to the evolving rulebook of the Financial Action Task Force, conscious that a single grey-listing can chill correspondent banking lines overnight. In Brazzaville this awareness is keenly felt: oil receipts, cross-border telecom ventures and an embryonic financial hub increasingly rely on an unblemished reputation in the global clearing system. Government advisers quietly note that the Republic of Congo escaped the FATF’s 2010–2015 watch list cycle thanks to early statutory reforms, yet still faces what one diplomat calls a “perpetual probation period”. Against this backdrop,…