Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Congolese state captured by the Nguessos


In my understanding, although I could not find anybody to support or back it up, BMCE’s entry into the share of LCB Bank was just a ruse orchestrated by the President Sassou Nguesso to expatriate money from Congo to Morocco without raising any further eyebrows from the international community or from Congolese civil society organisations and political parties of the opposition. Denis Sassou Nguesso is therefore into the oil, publishing, banking and agro industrial sectors while his elder brother, Maurice Nguesso is the owner of the of the largest  and most diversified media group in the country: MNCOM. This company that is managed at the image of the country and it had the first digital network in the country via its pay per view TV: Mosaiq TV, Free to air TV: MNTV. He also owns radio stations in Brazzaville and Oyo, known as MN Radio and Maurice Nguesso owns the most modern printing press known as Impremerie Ayessa. He (Maurice Nguesso) also has shares in banks and aviation companies. As Maurice Nguesso’s profile had already shown, he is also into the logistics, micro finance, oil and agricultural sectors.

Claudia Sassou Nguesso

As for Claudia Sassou Nguesso, she is the Communications adviser to her father, and also owns a TV station called Top TV. Besides being into politics because she is also a Member of Parliament for Talangai electoral constituency, representing the ruling PCT Party, she is also into the oil sector through a company called Kontinent. The majority shareholder of Kontinent is Yaya Moussa, the former IMF country manager for Congo Brazzaville. Yaya Moussa, who is Cameroonian, is reported along with French man, Mathieu Pigasse and many others, whose names are not known, are claimed to have helped the Congolese government to doctor the country’s statistics in order for her to qualify for the IMF and World Bank Poor and Highly indebted Countries scheme. This information, I got from people working at the Presidency of the Republic in Brazzaville.  But according to some experts that, I spoke to, they are unanimous in declaring that, logically, the Republic of Congo won’t have qualified for the HIPC Programme if their statistics were not doctored as aforementioned. Hence the government requested the assistance of brilliant economists and with the complicity of a member of the IMF to lie for example on the population figure of the country.

Yaya Moussa

Earlier, we wrote that, Yaya Moussa and many others contributed in helping Congo to doctor its statistics. To compensate Yaya Moussa for having helped Congo scale through the hurdles put in place by the IMF and World Bank, the government gave licenses to his company aptly called, Kontinent, to operate in the Telecommunications and Oil sectors. And on the board of Kontinent Oil, which is a minor actor in the oil sector, Claudia Sassou is a board member. But she is not alone. According to people in the know, the other members of the family who are on the board of Kontinent are Antoinette Sassou Nguesso and Jean Bruno Richard Itoua (see profile).  While Kontinent Oil is still a minor actor in the Oil sector in Congo, she is certainly going to grow as they Nguessos are members of the board and also control who does what or who is offered what in the sector. One other thing which has to be made abundantly clear about Congo is that, all statistics and other data from the country are wrong. But to the discharge of Brazzaville, they are not the only country in Africa that lied for example on its population figures in order to make sure that, they not only qualify for the HIPC programme but had their debts cancelled by the Paris and London Clubs of lenders.

Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso


Another major beneficiary in the system is Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso. He is the heir apparent to his father. Barring some seismic changes, he will be the 7th president of Congo. He is being groomed for the top job. His father is doing everything for Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso’s smooth accession to power.  It is no surprise that, in 2012 he was elected as the lone and unchallenged MP for Oyo and he has been propelled into the Politburo of the ruling party.  For security proof, the President is arresting and jailing anybody viewed as a potential rival to his son. It explained why people like Andre Okombi Salissa are today in jail. So the ground work is being set for Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso to be propelled at the head of Congo between 2021 and 2023. Along with his elder sister Claudia, affectionately known as Koko, they are the most loved out of wedlock children of Denis Sassou Nguesso for reasons already explained. Denis Christel, who is variably known as Kiki or Prince Aladdin, is an oil trader by profession and one of the deputy managers of the state owned Societe Nationale des Petrole du Congo: SNPC. Denis Christel is the octopus of the family. He has stakes in all major state companies and he has created his own even though headed by close associates.  He is also into philanthropy and has created an NGO called Foundation Perspective Avenir, under whose banner he is carryout benevolence services in order to launder his image and also that of his family. 

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