Congo, for all the noises
made by its happy corrupt few, it is a strange country. It is a country that has
been destroyed by more than 3 decades of Sassou Nguesso misrule. The more than 3 decades of Sassou Nguesso
rule has not only seen the destruction of the education and health systems, it
has also made the country to produce the
laziest and less ambitious women in the
word, especially those born between 1978 and 2000. Sassou Nguesso has also
destroyed the entrepreneurial character in both men and women of Congo. Hence,
it is hard to see a successful business man in Congo Brazzaville today. Most
businessmen and women are briefcase businessmen and woman or are people who
survive on contracts from the civil service. However in that entrepreneurial
desert, there are nonetheless some oases of entrepreneurs such as Pierre Otto
Mbongo, late Charles Ebina and to a certain level Maurice Nguesso. These old
generation businessmen are the few who can boast of having established
businesses in the private sector, even though they are not always very
successful. But one thing is clear; the private sector in Congo is a desert for
indigenes. Those controlling what could be described as the private sector are
foreigners, in particular Lebanese, West Africans from Mauritania, Mali,
Senegal and Guinea, some Cameroonians and Nigerians and also the French. They
are mostly operating in the retail business sector and very little in the
service and industrial sectors.
Paul Obambi is therefore one
of the few young or new generation indigenous businessmen of the country.
However, for all his talents and business ingenuity, he can’t justify how he
got his wealth. Pierre Otto Mbongo, who is also related to Paul Obambi, once
told me that, Mr Obambi was an investment or business straw man for Sassou
Nguesso. In other words, what Pierre Otto Mbongo fondly known as “Pierrot”
meant was that, the business investments of Paul Obambi, was in fact that of
Denis Sassou Nguesso. However, when I asked Paul Obambi about the claim of
Pierre Otto Mbongo, he rejected the allegation as pure jealousy from an old man.
Whatever the allegations made against Paul Obambi, there are nonetheless two
things which are true. He is an organized soft spoken man, who makes many promises
and seldom keeps them. On the other
hand, he is also an astute businessman. Hence he has been able to join the
league of top African businessmen. And because
of his business successes, he is regularly received by some African leaders
with whom they discuss business ventures. Paul Obambi enjoys meeting with top
political figures and also his business peers. However, his other pleasure is
his love to be in the company top African musical stars such as Koffi Olumide
or Papa Wemba. His business bases are:
Brazzaville, Kinshasa, Abidjan and Paris. However, the headquarters of his
business empire is located in Brazzaville on the Edith Lucie Bongo Ondimba Avenue.
This avenue is located
within the industrial district of Mpila, a neighbourhood situated north east of
Brazzaville. Although Paul Obambi presents himself as a self-made man and
attempts to distance himself from the President of the Republic and the
Congolese government, the walls of in his vast office are strewn with souvenirs
which are also evidence of who has made him to be what he is today financially.
He also has a large photo that he took in the company of President Denis Sassou
Nguesso and his wife Antoinette Sassou Nguesso. Paul Obambi is the CEO of an
agro-industrial group called SAPRO and he also doubles as chairman of the
Chambers of Commerce, industry, agriculture and trade and mines of Brazzaville.
He has been the chair of the Brazzaville chamber of Commerce since 1996. Paul
Obambi is always clean shaven, strapped in his trademark sumptuous navy blue
suit, probably crafted in France as any typical Congolese elite will do. Paul
Obambi also likes to be informal. Hence, he prefers to be simply called as “Yaya
Paul or Ya Paul" (big brother Paul, a sign of respect). He is a flamboyant
geek. Paul Obambi is not yet Congo’s Aliko Dangote, but he is aspiring to
become one of the continent’s richest men and hence he is focusing the
expansion of his business mostly out of Congo, because he claims, his country
is not business friendly coupled with the fact that, it has a small population.
Hence he focuses on Cameroon and neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Paul Obambi was on the 13th
of December 1959 and founded his Sapro group immediately he returned from
France, where he studied economics. As far as the source of his wealth is concern,
Paul Obambi claims that, it was savings
that he made during his brief spell in the public service, which he used to
start his own business. But the reality is that, without the help of President
Denis Sassou Nguesso, he won’t have been successful as he is today. Even though
he vehemently refuses, he truly seems to be fronting for the President of the
Republic of Congo. For given the business reality in the country, it is almost
impossible to succeed without support from someone influential within the
system. It is claimed from reliable sources that, it is the President who facilitates
his meetings with African head of states. And the question this: why will
Sassou Nguesso, who prefers his children and immediate family members help
Obami if he has no interest in what he is doing? Paul Obambi doesn’t give any
convincing answer but focuses at giving candid responses when addressing the
reason why Congolese don’t succeed in private entrepreneurship.
He claims that, Congo is a
country destroyed by communism and also where the culture of mediocrity and economic
and educational stagnations constitutes a real handicap to development".
He also adds that: Congolese are very lazy. Paul Obambi is not only an Intellectual,
but also a shrewd businessman, known for his objective analysis of developmental
issues in Africa. His mastery of developmental challenges in Africa has been
demonstrated by a presentation that he delivered at the Forbes Africa Summit,
which was held on the 29th of July 2013 in Brazzaville. After a slow
start in 1990, Sapro group that he leads has extended its tentacles in the
industrial, Oil and Gas and Food sectors. The Sapro Group is also present in
the services and construction sectors. Today,
for all its shortcomings, Sapro group is one of the successful models of
private initiative in Congo. It has more than 1,000 employees across its ten
subsidiaries spread in Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Chad, Niger,
Ivory Coast, and Central African Republic and soon in Cameroon. In the DRC, its
oil subsidiary, Sapro Oil, recently bought Congo Oil. Congo Oil was a state owned
lost making company, which the DRC authorities had decided to privatize. Solupac
is another subsidiary of Sapro. This company was set up in partnership with a German
company called German Mirror & Co. It is a company that specializes in the
production of a wide range of lubricants for vehicle engines. While international
media, the first independent billboard display company in Congo, controls 80%
market share of outdoor advertisement in the country. According to Paul Obambi,
he wants to become the market leader in the African market of bill boarding or
outdoor marketing.
International Media, the adverting
arm of Sapro has 1,000 bill boards of different types across the country. In
Ivory Coast, International Media is the second company in the sector, says, Paul
Obambi, while smiling from ear to ear. Paul Obambi is also in the mobile phone
business, which is currently experiencing a great boom, albeit with changing
consumption attitudes on the continent. He is the majority shareholder of Azur
Telecom, which is the fourth mobile telephony operator in the Congo. The parent
company of Azur Telecom is Equator Telecom, which is a subsidiary of SAPRO
group. Through Equator Telecom, he has taken
control of Azur Gabon and Azur CAR.
Paul Obambi once told me that: Our ambition now is to create an investment bank,
before listing at the Abidjan regional stock Exchange.” He however added:
Before we get there, we are already going into mining and we will soon be producing
iron ore from Mayoko-Moussondji in the Niari department”. The SAPRO group, he
continued: owns three operating licenses in partnership with Congo Mining,
which is a subsidiary of Australia's Equatorial Resources”. While it is true that
Sapro group is worth over FCFA 500 billion in terms of capitalization, Paul
Obambi doesn’t like to talk about his wealth or that of his group. "Money
hates noise, and in Congo, a country of jealous and lazy people, it better not
to speak too much about your success" he once told me. Paul Obambi, who
was born in the populous Poto-poto neighborhood of Brazzaville, used to play
football, barefoot and he was also a militant or activist of the former Union
of Congolese Socialist Youth abbreviated UJCS. This was during the one-party communist
rule state (1969-1991). "Now I'm away from political passions and I prefer
my hat of a businessman", he told me.
When I told him that, it
seems his success is simply because of his links with the President of the
Republic and his connections with friends within the ruling Congolese Workers
Party abbreviated PCT, he replied: those
are words from lazy and envious people, who are jealous of my success. And he
concluded: I am what I am today because of hard work and not because of
imaginary connections with the President. Paul Obambi is a member of an African
or an indigenous Congolese Christian church known as Kibanguist. This church was created by
Simon Kibangu. Kibangu was born according to the on line dictionary Wikipedia,
in the village of Nkamba on 12th or the 24th of September
1887 and died in prison on the 12th of October 1951. He was the son
of a religious leader and became a Baptist in 1915 and worked as a catechist
for several years before beginning his own ministry. He is the founder of
Kimbaguism and his followers consider him to be the special envoy of Jesus
Christ as quoted in the fourteenth chapter of the biblical gospel of John.
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