Author: Emmanuel Mbemba

Celebrating MSME Day in Brazzaville While the United Nations annually earmarks 27 June as Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Day, Brazzaville chose 28 June 2025 to translate the commemoration into concrete pedagogy. In the chandelier-lit halls of the Grand Lancaster Hotel, more than three hundred participants—from parliamentarians to hip-hop artists—converged for a master class titled “How to Create, Manage, Finance and Grow Your Enterprise.” The symbolism was hardly lost on observers: by coupling an international calendar event with a domestic capacity-building exercise, the Republic of the Congo signalled that the private sector is no longer a rhetorical afterthought but a…

Presidential Aphorism Echoes Classical Thought When President Denis Sassou Nguesso told francophone entrepreneurs in Kintélé that “too little tax kills the State, and a non-State kills the economy,” he compressed a complex macro-fiscal dilemma into a single phrase that recalls the Aristotelian quest for virtuous balance. Observers noted how the remark bridges contemporary policy debates and the cautionary wisdom of Victor Hugo, reminding domestic and foreign investors that fiscal fragility ultimately erodes the very institutions on which markets depend. The rhetorical flourish, far from being a mere bon mot, underscores the administration’s acknowledgement that resilient public finance is a prerequisite…

MSC’s Strategic Arrival in Central Africa The Italian-Swiss group Mediterranean Shipping Company sealed its EUR 5.7 billion purchase of Bolloré Africa Logistics in December 2022, instantly repositioning itself as the largest integrated logistics player on the continent (Reuters, 22 December 2022). Within the Republic of Congo the flagship asset is the container terminal of Pointe-Noire, a concession running until 2039 that has long served as a maritime lifeline for land-locked neighbours. Diplomats from Brazzaville to Kinshasa note that the transaction unfolded with notable rapidity, a testament to both the clarity of Congolese concession law and the government’s stated objective of…

Seville’s Forum and the Echoes of Missed SDG Deadlines The Andalusian heat could not distract delegates in Seville from the growing chill surrounding progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. Addressing the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, Congo’s Minister of International Cooperation and Public-Private Partnership, Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso, warned that the world is five years away from 2030 yet many targets remain stubbornly elusive. His remarks echoed recent United Nations data showing that only 15 percent of SDG indicators are on track (UN DESA 2024). For the minister, the culprit is less political will than an international financial…

Continental Ambitions Meet Pragmatic Realities Forecasts released by the International Monetary Fund and Afreximbank suggest that Africa’s combined merchandise trade could scale an unprecedented US$1.5 trillion next year, translating into an average expansion of 5 percent annually until 2026. The African Continental Free Trade Area, formally launched in 2021, is widely credited for providing the institutional backbone of this momentum. By lowering tariff ceilings, simplifying rules-of-origin and instilling a degree of legal predictability, the accord has already lured fresh investment into automotive assembly corridors in Morocco and Ghana as well as pharmaceutical clusters in Kenya. Yet diplomats posted to Addis…

Regulatory Milestone in Abuja Boosts Investor Sentiment The announcement in Abuja on 3 July 2025 that the National Insurance Commission had granted separate life and general licences to SanlamAllianz was more than a procedural formality. For the regulators, it represented conclusive evidence that Nigeria’s recent recalibration of solvency thresholds and prudential guidelines is paying diplomatic dividends, attracting heavyweight capital even as global risk appetite remains cautious (NAICOM press briefing, 3 July 2025). A Pan-African Pact Finds Local Expression The licences anchor the strategic alliance unveiled by South Africa’s Sanlam and Germany’s Allianz in 2022, a union spanning twenty-seven African jurisdictions.…

Strategic realignment fortifies ONDA’s institutional architecture The National Airports Office of Morocco (ONDA) has entered a decisive phase of administrative recalibration, announcing a two-tier reshuffle that places interim managers at the helm of the air-navigation and airport-operations divisions while an open recruitment process identifies permanent successors. Such sequencing, presented by Director General Habiba Laklalech as a “measured acceleration of governance reform” (ONDA press briefing, 4 May 2024), safeguards operational continuity in a network that served nearly 25 million passengers in 2023, up 13 percent on pre-pandemic levels according to the International Air Transport Association. Rather than a mere personnel swap,…

Moody’s Verdict and the Immediate Market Ripple Late June saw Moody’s Investors Service recalibrate the long-term issuer rating of the African Export-Import Bank from Baa1 to Baa2, assigning a stable outlook after a period of negative watch. The agency underscored what it views as a thinner cushion of asset quality, a deepened exposure to stressed sovereigns and, crucially, a moderation in the institution’s access to low-cost liquidity. While the numerical adjustment appears incremental, the move reverberated across Johannesburg and London trading desks, where Afreximbank’s outstanding Eurobonds quoted wider by roughly 25 basis points in the immediate aftermath. Secondary-market sentiment, however,…

Fiscal Ambitions and the Sub-Regional Debt Landscape The draft 2026 budget transmitted by Cameroon’s Ministry of Finance signals an intention to mobilise some 650 billion CFA francs, roughly 1.16 billion US dollars, on international markets. The figure, nestled in the medium-term expenditure framework, outstrips the country’s 2023 Eurobond debut of 450 million dollars and marks the largest external funding target since the signature of the current Extended Credit Facility with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In a sub-region where the Republic of Congo, Gabon and Chad have alternated between syndicated loans and multilateral windows, Yaoundé’s move underscores a renewed confidence…

A strategic lift-off for Congo’s flag carrier In the measured world of civil aviation, a timetable can be as revealing as a communiqu é. On a humid Monday morning in late May, Equatorial Congo Airlines once again appeared on departure boards beyond its domestic network, signalling that Brazzaville intends to remain an aviation gateway rather than a cul-de-sac. The first rotations to Douala and Yaoundé, swiftly followed by Libreville, demonstrate both industrial resolve and political will, two qualities that often decide the fate of state-owned carriers in Africa. Industry observers recall that ECAir had transported more than 118 000 domestic…