Author: Congo Times

A Strategic Confluence of Hydrocarbons and Credit Markets Few African economies illustrate the delicate chemistry between commodity abundance and capital markets as vividly as the Republic of Congo. With proven oil reserves exceeding 2.9 billion barrels according to the African Energy Chamber, Brazzaville’s fiscal outlook remains closely tethered to Brent price curves. During the 2022–2023 upswing in hydrocarbon revenues, the government channelled part of the windfall to reduce arrears accumulated during the pandemic shock, trimming the public-debt-to-GDP ratio from 103 percent in 2021 to an estimated 88 percent in 2023 (IMF Article IV 2024). Yet, appetite for fresh funding persists,…

A fully subscribed auction in a cautious macroeconomic climate On 2 July 2025 the Burkinabè Treasury returned to the regional UEMOA marketplace with a combined operation of one-year Treasury bills and three, five and seven-year Treasury bonds. According to provisional data released by UMOA-Titres and corroborated by the Banque Centrale des États de l’Afrique de l’Ouest, the sovereign sought CFA35 billion and ultimately retained CFA38.499 billion after bids totalling CFA40.892 billion were placed, translating into a coverage ratio of almost 117 %. The allocation decision respected the customary prudence of Ouagadougou’s debt managers, who absorbed roughly 94 % of orders…

A Strategic Campus at the Heart of the 2025 Youth Agenda The government of the Republic of the Congo has signalled a decisive turn in its higher-education policy by endorsing the creation of what officials call an “inclusive university”, a concept that merges academic excellence with broad social access. Speaking at the close of the National Assizes on Student Employability and Entrepreneurship in Brazzaville, Minister of Higher Education Delphine Edith Emmanuelle framed the initiative as a cornerstone of President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s decision to extend the Year of Youth through 2025. Far from mere rhetoric, the move is intended to…

Strategic Forestry Diplomacy at the FAO in Rome The discreet hand-over of Congo-Brazzaville’s instrument of accession to the International Poplar Commission, performed at FAO headquarters on 30 June and countersigned by Director-General Qu Dongyu, drew little media fanfare yet considerable attention from diplomats versed in green affairs. Ambassador Henri Okemba’s act capped nearly two years of targeted advocacy by Minister of Forest Economy Rosalie Matondo, whose address to the Commission’s twenty-seventh session in Bordeaux last October emphasised Congo’s ambition to couple large-scale reforestation with export-oriented timber innovation (FAO 2024). Membership in the Commission—established in 1947 to standardise research on fast-growing…

A veteran rises to the helm When Emmanuel Benoist walked into PwC’s Paris office as a young audit associate in 1999, the euro was still a paper concept and sovereign debt crises were the realm of academic speculation. Twenty-five years later, the same professional—tempered by assignments from New York to Casablanca—has been entrusted with steering PwC France and Maghreb through an era that many analysts judge structurally more unstable than the turn of the millennium (PwC statement, 2024). On 1 July 2025 he formally succeeded Nicolas Pélissier as regional chair for a four-year mandate, following an internal vote that, according…

Stakeholders Converge in Pointe-Noire The port city of Pointe-Noire, long synonymous with offshore rigs and tanker traffic, briefly reinvented itself as a forum for energy diplomacy on 26–27 June. Convened by the Rencontre pour la Paix et les Droits de l’Homme (RPDH) and financially backed by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors with technical input from Energy Transition Fund, the consultation gathered representatives of the Kouilou departmental council, the municipality, line ministries, parliament, local communities and international observers. Although civil society hosted the event, high-ranking public officials such as Bienvenu Makosso Dangui and Philippes M’Boumba underscored the administration’s interest in the exercise, signalling…

Legislative Milestone Anchored in Security Policy By promulgating Decree 2024-324 on 9 July 2024, President Denis Sassou Nguesso formalised a long-gestating debate around motorcycle-taxi regulation. The text, particularly Article 9, bars non-nationals from operating commercial two-wheelers, a modality that has expanded rapidly in Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire and secondary cities. Officials invoke a recent uptick in robberies and cross-border motorbike thefts allegedly orchestrated by foreign riders, an assertion echoed by the Ministry of the Interior’s quarterly security bulletin for Q2 2024. Within this framing, the decree appears less a gesture of economic protectionism than a targeted tool of public-order governance designed to…

A Strategic Edifice Rises in Lekoumou When the ceremonial ribbon was cut in Sibiti last weekend, it was not merely a local fête: it was a carefully choreographed affirmation that the Congolese Party of Labour remains structurally and ideologically anchored in the country’s geographic heartlands. The newly unveiled headquarters, financed entirely by Senator Bita Madzou, introduces a 600-square-metre landmark that dwarfs most administrative buildings in this remote département. Local media such as Les Dépêches de Brazzaville have underscored its sophisticated conference hall and high-specification offices, elements more commonly associated with ministerial complexes in Brazzaville than with a provincial township. The…

Lawmakers pivot from approval to performance scrutiny In a sign of institutional consolidation, the Economic, Financial and Budgetary Control Commission of Congo-Brazzaville’s National Assembly moved from legislative drafting to hands-on performance verification. Convened on 1 July in Brazzaville, the body launched what its first vice-president Thierry Hobié described as a “pedagogical but firm” outreach to companies benefitting from establishment conventions, the legal instruments that grant multi-year tax holidays and customs rebates to qualifying investors. The move marks a departure from the perception that once an incentive package is signed the public sector’s role becomes merely facilitative. Deputies now insist that…

A strategic forest frontier under the microscope The Republic of Congo commands nearly 22 million hectares of forest, a swath that places the country at the heart of the Congo Basin, the planet’s second-lung after the Amazon (FAO, 2021). Over the last decade President Denis Sassou Nguesso has leveraged this ecological endowment to position Brazzaville as a convening power on climate diplomacy, most recently at the Three Basins Summit in October 2023. At home, the administration’s flagship legal pillar remains the Forest Code 33-2020, an ambitious framework designed to couple industrial timber production with Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)…