Sun, Jan 05, 2020 page16

• Congolese economic hub still singing the blues, despite upturn in oil fortunes

  • By Samir Tounsi and Laudes Martial Mbon / AFP, BRAZZAVILLE
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  If the official figures are any guide, the good times in the Republic of the Congo should be returning.

  Five years after going into a tailspin, oil — the country’s lifeblood — is flowing at a record 350,000 barrels per day after a new field, Moho Nord, went on tap.

  The IMF projected that the central African state would record growth of 4 percent for last year, after 1.6 percent in 2018 and contraction in 2016 and 2017.

  However, in Pointe-Noire, a port city that is home to about one-fifth of the country’s 4.5 million people, many say that any upturn has yet to reach them.

  Deschagrains Ebeh, 37, is head of De-Network, one of many companies that did well out of servicing the country’s rush for black gold.

  Today, Ebeh’s business card lists a dozen activities — including computing, video surveillance, training, auditing and consulting, Web site design and even a call center. He had to diversify to survive and pitch his business to individuals rather than well-heeled corporations.

  To save money, he trimmed his payroll to 10 people, works as both managing director and technical director, and opened up part of his office space for coworking to ease the burden of his US$1,120 monthly rent.

  With the oil crash, “we lost 50 percent of our clients and 60 percent of our customers,” Ebeh said.

  In the halcyon year of 2014-2015, his company had a turnover of 500 million CFA francs (US$851,789 at the current exchange rate).

  “We haven’t made any profits for four years,” he said.

  Pointe-Noire Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Agriculture and Crafts president Sylvestre Didier Mavouenzela said that the oil contraction had ricocheted down the job market.

  “When the crisis hit, Total [SA], the biggest company in Pointe-Noire, renegotiated lower contracts with its subcontractors,” he said.

  “Fifty thousand jobs went between 2014 and 2017,” he said.

  Many expatriate posts were cut — which had a knock-on effect for those working as gardeners, child caregivers or drivers.

  There has been little sign of any new oil wealth trickling down — state receipts are being used to scale down public debt, in line with an agreement with the IMF, which in July last year approved a US$448 million bailout.

  Pointe-Noire’s port has recorded a big upturn in container traffic: 900,000 units last year after 800,000 in 2018.

  Yet, most of the containers are in transit, rather than destined for the local economy.

  They head to other ports in the region — Matadi in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo and Libreville, the capital of Gabon.

  “We are going through the third round of job cuts in two years,” said Christophe Pujalte, regional director of the French group Bollore Transport & Logistics, one of the port’s operators.

  “In 2015, we had 1,100 people. By the end of year, it will be less than 700,” Pujalte said.

  Other figures in the local economy have plenty of complaints about governance.

  They include corruption, “harassment” by tax and customs authorities and the cost of using a highway linking the city to the capital, Brazzaville — the toll is the equivalent of more than US$330 per truck for the 500km journey.

  Political uncertainty is also a concern.

  The last poll, in 2016, saw the re-election of Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso, 76, triggering unrest in Brazzaville and armed conflict in the fertile region of Pool that cut the vital rail line between the capital and Pointe-Noire.
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