Author: Congo Times

Cybercrime’s Macroeconomic Shadow over Africa The arithmetic is sobering. The International Telecommunication Union estimates that a cyber-attack strikes somewhere in the world every thirty-nine seconds, and that the global bill for malicious intrusions could rise to 9.5 trillion dollars by 2025 (ITU 2024). On the African continent, where digital adoption is accelerating faster than the pace of regulatory harmonisation, the economic haemorrhage already surpasses four billion dollars each year. Interpol’s latest African Cyberthreat Assessment confirms that corporate entities now endure an average of 3 370 incursions every week, a year-on-year surge of more than ninety per cent (Interpol 2023). Such…

Loudima’s Ribbon-Cutting Reverberates Beyond Ceremony The June inauguration of Eni’s Arturo Bellezza Agri-Hub in Loudima unfolded with the ritual precision of statecraft: a tricolour ribbon severed, machines humming to life, and villagers lining dusty roads under equatorial sun. Yet behind the symbolism lies a significant inflection point for Congo-Brazzaville’s development model, one President Denis Sassou Nguesso framed as “placing agriculture at the very centre of our energy future,” according to remarks carried by national radio. The 20-hectare complex, designed to crush soy, grape seed and sunflower into low-sulphur feedstock for bio-refineries, is the first industrial site in Central Africa dedicated…

Brazzaville’s literary evening of remembrance The air inside the modest auditorium of the French Institute in Brazzaville thickened with incense and expectancy as Malachie Cyrille Roson Ngouloubi—better known to local audiences as “Écrivain Sacré”—took the lectern. Before a gathering of diplomats, university deans and representatives of the Ministry of Culture, he unfurled his new poem, Elégie lunaire pour Valentin Mudimbé. The reading, scheduled barely two months after the renowned philosopher’s passing in New York on 22 April, was less a literary event than a rite: an instance of collective mourning for a Congolese voice that had become, in Mudimbé’s own…

A strategic ribbon-cutting in Nkayi The intense June heat did not discourage dignitaries, diplomats and local farmers from converging on Nkayi, some 350 kilometres south of Brazzaville, for a ceremony whose symbolism went beyond its provincial setting. When President Denis Sassou Nguesso cut the scarlet ribbon on 27 June 2025 he did more than open a factory; he offered a public illustration of his administration’s determination to re-industrialise the Bouenza corridor and signal macroeconomic resilience after the twin shocks of the pandemic and fluctuating oil revenues. Government communiqués stressed the head of state’s personal interest in translating policy road-maps into…

Methodology behind the United Nations’ Scorecard In a carefully choreographed ceremony at the Palais des Congrès in Brazzaville, the United Nations Country Team presented its Results Report 2024 to senior ministers, ambassadors and representatives of civil society. The document aggregates more than eighty performance indicators drawn from the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework, national statistics and third-party audits. According to the Resident Coordinator’s office, the methodology privileges government-owned data sets supplemented by household surveys financed by the UN Development Programme and the African Development Bank. This hybrid approach, described by a UN statistician as ‘evidence with local DNA’ (UNCT…

Demographic Momentum and the Policy Imperative With nearly 60 % of its population under thirty, the Republic of Congo faces a demographic surge that is as promising as it is demanding. Government white papers presented to the National Assembly in 2023 underscore the view that productive employment is “a strategic bulwark for social cohesion and national resilience” (Ministry of Planning, Brazzaville, 2023). President Denis Sassou Nguesso has repeatedly framed human-capital development as a pillar of both the national development plan and the African Union’s Agenda 2063, signalling continuity between domestic objectives and continental aspirations. Higher Education’s Skills Gap: From Diagnosis…

A discreet financial pillar in Brazzaville’s diversification drive Amid the more visible state-led infrastructure ventures that dominate headlines, Crédit du Congo has been methodically expanding its mandate from traditional retail banking into the politically salient terrain of investment promotion. The lender—backed by regional shareholders yet operating under the prudential umbrella of the Central African Banking Commission—now frames itself as a partner to the National Development Plan 2022-2026, which prioritises economic diversification beyond hydrocarbons. Senior executives argue that commercial banks possess complementary agility to public agencies, enabling them to sift projects quickly and channel capital to sectors where multiplier effects are…

A decade of maritime resilience in Congolese waters The soft equatorial breeze drifting across the quays of Pointe-Noire carries with it the unmistakable sound of tugboats and container cranes, a symphony that Congo Maritime Services Company (CMS) has learned to orchestrate with growing dexterity since its incorporation in 2014. From a modest shipping agency serving coastal cabotage, CMS has expanded into a multi-faceted service provider encompassing vessel husbandry, offshore logistics, customs facilitation and nautical assistance. Its anniversary, commemorated in early May at the city’s convention centre, provided an apt moment to reflect on how a national operator can anchor itself…

Strategic Timing of a Turkish Entrant When the executives of Istanbul-based Albayrak Group cut the ceremonial ribbon in Brazzaville this spring, they did more than open a new chapter in the firm’s forty-year history; they inserted Turkey’s corporate flag into the commercial arteries of Central Africa at a moment of cautious economic recovery. The International Monetary Fund estimates that Congo-Brazzaville’s non-oil growth could edge above 4 percent in 2024, provided infrastructure bottlenecks ease. Albayrak’s arrival therefore aligns with a macroeconomic window that Congolese officials have described as “propitious for partners willing to share risk as well as opportunity” (IMF country…

Paris venue underscores diaspora’s soft power In the stately halls of La Maison Congo, a stone’s throw from Paris’s bustling Boulevard Saint-Germain, Health Minister Dr Samuel Roger Kamba chose to convene more than one hundred Congolese physicians, nurses and public-health scholars now practising across Europe. The date—29 June—carried quiet symbolism: midway between Kinshasa’s independence festivities and France’s own national celebrations, the gathering was a reminder that the Democratic Republic of Congo’s most strategic resources increasingly extend beyond minerals to the human capital of its diaspora. Diplomatic protocol was observed with care, yet the atmosphere was notably collegial, reinforcing the notion…