Author: Emmanuel Mbemba

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 wp-signup.php, 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 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…

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,…

SITEC forum places entrepreneurship at the centre of national strategy Few venues capture the pulse of Congo-Brazzaville’s evolving economic narrative better than the Salon de l’innovation, de la technologie et de l’entrepreneuriat (SITEC). Its second edition, convened on 11 November in Brazzaville, opened with an unambiguous message: the Republic’s demographic dividend will translate into prosperity only if the younger generation embraces entrepreneurship on an unprecedented scale. Throughout the day, policymakers, executives and scholars converged on one theme—unlocking youth potential so that tomorrow’s economy is not merely consumed but consciously built by Congolese hands. Statistical evidence of a gathering momentum Delivering…

Shared Vision of Modernization When Ambassador An Qing returned last week to Oyo, the hometown of President Denis Sassou Nguesso, she spoke of a “tangible dynamism” that mirrors the optimism felt in Beijing after the fourth plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. The envoy’s remarks, delivered during a courtesy call on local authorities, distilled the essence of a common aspiration: translating macro-economic ambition into daily prosperity for ordinary citizens (Xinhua, 2023). The plenum in Beijing placed qualitative growth, technological upgrading and social equity at the core of China’s domestic agenda. Brazzaville’s 2022-2026 National…

Judiciary capacity-building and business climate From the wood-panelled auditorium of the Higher School of Magistracy in Brazzaville a clear message was sent this week: securing ideas has become as strategic as protecting borders. Opening a three-day seminar devoted to intellectual property (IP) law, Minister of Industrial Development and Private-Sector Promotion Antoine Nycéphore Thomas Fylla de Saint Eudes argued that legal predictability is now a decisive variable in Congo-Brazzaville’s competitiveness matrix. “There can be no lasting growth without equity before the law,” he reminded the 55 judges enrolled in the programme, insisting that jurisprudence must keep pace with the technological leaps…

Minister Mondélé’s Strategic Pitch Standing before the National Assembly, Minister of Urban Sanitation, Local Development and Road Maintenance Juste Désiré Mondélé set an assertive tone: the Accelerated Local Development Programme, or PADC, is poised to become “an instrument for transforming living standards in every district of the Republic of Congo”. His presentation retraced the programme’s genesis, from early inter-ministerial consultations to its validation by the Council of Ministers, and emphasised its political anchorage in the Head of State’s vision for balanced territorial growth (National Assembly proceedings, 2024). The initiative is valued at 738 million dollars—about 445 billion CFA francs—and will…

Ceremony Signals Fiscal Determination Beneath the high ceilings of the Ministry of Finance in Brazzaville, Director of Cabinet Paul Malié presided over the formal installation of nine central directors at the Directorate-General of Customs and Indirect Duties. The 5 November ceremony, held only five days after the officials’ nomination by Prime-Ministerial Decree 2025-440 of 31 October 2025, punctuated a decisive moment for an administration tasked with safeguarding the Treasury’s frontline revenue stream. In his address, Malié set the tone for the new tenure, reminding the appointees that customs receipts and related fiscal flows underwrite the day-to-day functioning of the Congolese…

Port leaders convene in Pointe-Noire The Atlantique haze hanging over Pointe-Noire could not blur the sense of urgency expressed inside the conference room where the 20th round-table of directors-general of the Association of Port Management of West and Central Africa (Agpaoc) opened on 4 November. Presiding over the meeting, Arthur Borogui-Kuma, head of Ontario-Gabon and freshly elected chair of the session, warned that African port platforms are standing “at a decisive crossroads where governance must evolve as rapidly as trade flows”. His assertion set the tone for three days of closed-door discussions designed to chart an operational course for the…