Author: Congo Times

Diplomatic Momentum Around a Shared Health Horizon In the hushed conference room of Brazzaville’s ministry compound on 4 November 2025, the words “interdependence” and “resilience” echoed with unusual insistence. The Ministry of Forest Economy, flanked by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Wildlife Conservation Society, convened specialists from public health, veterinary science, ecology and civil society to translate the One Health doctrine into a pragmatic Congolese roadmap. Although the Congo Basin often figures in global climate debates, the workshop revealed another strategic treasure: its capacity to act as an early-warning shield against zoonotic pathogens that…

A strategic data leap for Congo’s economy The Republic of the Congo is preparing to take a decisive step in statistical modernisation with the creation of a national business register, a digital backbone intended to consolidate information on every economically active legal entity in the country. Spearheaded by the National Institute of Statistics (INS) under the auspices of the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Regional Integration, the initiative enjoys technical and financial support from the World Bank as part of the Harmonisation and Improvement of Statistics in West and Central Africa, Series of Projects No. 2. Congolese officials view the…

A symbolic hand-over on National Tree Day Under the overcast sky of 6 November 2025, the esplanade of Pointe-Noire’s city hall became the stage for a gesture rich in symbolism: Éric Delattre, Managing Director of TotalEnergies EP Congo, presented nearly 300 young trees to the municipality during the 39th National Tree Day. Created in 1984 to encourage the fight against deforestation and climate change, the annual celebration has matured into a civic ritual that unites local authorities, corporate actors and residents around the same green horizon. Prefect Pierre Cébert Iboko Onanga formally received the donation before passing it on to…

Strategic inspection along the Pointe-Noire—Brazzaville axis Standing beneath the pylons of Loudima, in Bouenza, Energy and Hydraulics Minister Emile Ouosso chose to take the measure of works that are quietly reshaping the electrical spine linking Pointe-Noire to the capital. His mission, carried out with a compact delegation of engineers and financiers, consisted in what he called “a first-hand evaluation of the rehabilitation and reinforcement of the transport network”. The site visit marks the Government’s deliberate follow-through on its commitment to modernise infrastructure connecting the country’s two largest cities—an artery whose original components date back to 1982. Eni Congo’s civil works…

A Forum Framed by Urgency and Opportunity The third VoxEco gathering, held in Brazzaville, offered a timely platform for the Minister of Economy, Plan and Regional Integration, Ludovic Ngatsé, to articulate the government’s road map for economic diversification. Speaking against the backdrop of high public debt and lingering infrastructural bottlenecks, the minister drew a deliberately hopeful picture. “A promising momentum is taking shape,” he declared, suggesting that the country’s macro-fundamentals can still be steered toward inclusive and resilient growth. Digital Public Finances as Cornerstone of Reform Central to the minister’s presentation was the ongoing digitalisation of revenue collection and expenditure…

Johannesburg gathers Africa’s energy deal-makers On 21 November the African Energy Chamber convenes its G20 Investment Forum in Johannesburg, the first major milestone on the road to South Africa’s presidency of the G20 in 2025. The plenary session, pointedly entitled “Defining Pragmatic Policies for Energy Addition in Africa”, will assemble respected practitioners such as Olu Verheijen, energy adviser to Nigeria’s President; Bryce Dustman of Stryk Global Diplomacy; Eskom executive Alfred Seema; and McKinsey Africa chair Acha Leke. Their brief is clear: craft a regulatory narrative able to unlock hydrocarbons and renewables without compromising the continent’s twin imperatives of electrification and…

Johannesburg forum places Africa’s agenda at the centre When South Africa assumes the G20 presidency in 2025, the customary host-city communiqués will carry an unmistakably African inflection. A foretaste arrives on 21 November in Johannesburg, where the African Energy Chamber will convene heads of diplomacy, regulators and financiers for the G20 Africa Energy Investment Forum. The flagship plenary, Defining Pragmatic Policies for Energy Addition in Africa, is expected to translate continental aspirations—universal electricity access and low-carbon industrialisation—into regulatory language that reassures capital markets and development partners alike (African Energy Chamber, 2023). Energy security: the unvarnished arithmetic Hard numbers frame the…

Libreville gathering highlights continental media excellence A discreet but decisive hum of anticipation pervaded the conference hall of the Mont-Bouët district in Libreville on 13 November, when the Atlantic Federation of African Press Agencies (FAAPA) concluded its tenth executive meeting by revealing the laureates of its annual media awards. The Grand Media Prize, the most coveted distinction within the network of twenty-five national agencies, was unanimously accorded to the Nigerian News Agency (NAN) for a long-form reportage entitled “Open Defecation Remains a Critical Public-Health Challenge”. NAN’s in-depth sanitation feature resonates beyond borders Crafted by a field team dispatched to a…

Official data highlight sustained remittance flow The Agency for the Regulation of Fund Transfers, an entity under the Ministry of Finance, Budget and Public Portfolio, reports that from October to December 2024 the Congolese diaspora remitted an estimated 20.3 billion FCFA, the equivalent of 36 million USD (ARTF). Coming at the close of a year marked by mixed global economic signals, the figure confirms that private transfers from abroad remain a steady lifeline for many households in Congo-Brazzaville. The regulator stresses that it compiled the data from licensed money-transfer operators and banking institutions, thereby excluding informal channels that, by definition,…

Diversification framed as a national imperative When Minister of International Cooperation and Promotion of Public-Private Partnerships Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso stood before policy-makers and investors at the third Vox Eco Forum in Brazzaville on 13 November, his opening remark was unambiguous: “Diversification is no longer merely an economic option; it is now a national requirement.” By linking the quest for new growth drivers to a wider social contract, he repositioned the debate from technocratic to civic terrain, insisting that balanced responsibility between the State and private operators is indispensable. The minister argued that the State must privilege human-development spending—education, health,…