East African Business Week (Kampala)
Vahid Oloro
6 August 2007
While crossing Kinshasa's Boulevard 30 Juin at Rond Point Mandela (Mandela Roundabout), during the afternoon rush hour, a traffic policeman stops two men behind us and directs them to a specified pedestrian crossing point.
"We Congolese have to be even taught how to cross the road," Jerome Akili, my companion remarks.
The policeman's action is a sign of the wind of change sweeping across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The catch phrase here now is "Chargement de Mentalité" (the change of mentality), a clarion call to change being adopted by the Congolese government.
Indications are that Congo is waking up from the slumber that has pervaded it since independence.
Home to 60 million people, Congo is Africa's third largest country after Sudan and Algeria. But in resource wealth it dwarfs the two.
Yet since its independence DR Congo's growth was stunted by civil strife and an incorrigible mismanagement.
Last year the DR Congo held historical democratic elections, the first in close to half a century.
The peacefulness of the exercise was hailed as one of Africa's best in recent years.
Analysts say the expression of peace epitomised the characteristic desire for change now espoused by the Congolese people.
After the elections however, bloody clashes pitting armed supporters of defeated candidate and former warlord, Jean Pierre Bemba and government troops loyal to President Joseph Kabila, threatened to rip apart the electoral achievements.
Bemba and his troops were defeated and in a cunning flight to exile, Bemba left the country to seek treatment in Portugal. He is yet to return and signs of his return are getting slimmer each day.
Fading too is his potential to generate violence. Analysts agree that with Bemba holed up in Portugal and his rebel army scattered into exile across the river in neighbouring Republic of Congo, the internal support he had galvanised during the election period is rapidly wading.
"I supported him (Bemba) but he wasn't descent enough to accept defeat, instead he wanted to turn our city (Kinshasa) into a battle field," says a president of a local bank. "As a businessman peace is an important factor for me."
That is a feeling running across many of Bemba's supporters; many involved in lucrative businesses and anxious that peace prevails to enable their businesses prosper.
The growing confidence that war and mismanagement have no more space in DR Congo seems to be catching the attention of international investors as well.
Agence Nationale pour la Promotion des Investissements (ANAPI), the national agency entrusted with the role of attracting investment into Congo, says there is a large influx of foreign investors into the country.
Although most seek opportunities in the country's vast natural resource wealth, there are many other opportunities in the service sector, including in tourism and communication.
As investment ground starts to take shape, the need for a comprehensive communication sector becomes imperative. For instance, the country's major cities; Kinshasa, Mbuji Mayi, Lumumbashi, Bukavu, Goma and Kisangani, are all only interlinked by air.
This makes communication very expensive. The need for a comprehensive road and rail network is very urgent.
"There is an urgent need to establish an effective rail network here, says Mr. Lems Kamwanya, an official of Comité de Pilotage de la Réforme des Entreprises Publiques (COPIREP), a government agency reforming the country's public companies.
"The priority of government is to have partners for SNCC to uplift the rail transport."
Recently government, through COPIREP, posted into the internet invitations for bids from such partners. The response, according to sources in COPIREP, was overwhelming.
Other sectors urgently needing investment include crucial sectors such as agriculture. In Kinshasa nearly all the food eaten, including potatoes, rice, chicken and meat, are imported. For instance, the only thing done in Kinshasa to the French fries you will eat in a restaurant here; is to fry them. The potatoes, already sliced into chips, come all the way from Belgium.
Despite this current standing, economic analysts say the DR Congo presents one of Africa's promising resource bases for future development.
The country boasts of Africa's biggest hydro-power potential with the Congo River estimated to harbour a potential for up to 80,000MW of hydro power. It also has signs of large deposits of oil that are yet to be exploited.
Its vast mineral wealth, rich agricultural land and vast tropical forests remain the envy of Africa.
But first things first: Congo has to get its house in order. A nation that enjoyed a limited history of stability will have, staggeringly, to start putting in place functioning institutions of governance.
Already there is a booming banking sector - small but rapidly expanding in the 10 million population capital of Kinshasa.
The country has also one of the continent's most vibrant cellular phone industries. And its electronic media is booming with close to 40 television stations in Kinshasa alone.
This month, after suspending top managers in 26 of the 64 public companies, government carried out a selection examination for those to replace the suspended officials. Over 300 professionals sat for the examinations in an exercise bankrolled by the World Bank.
Even DR Congo's chaotic public transport industry is going through some reform. Two weeks ago police started enforcing rules designed to eliminate overloading in commuter taxis.
Many say President Kabila is waking up from the glory holiday following his election victory and is getting down to work.
And the current downpour of investment hunters signals a rising scramble for Congolese resources akin to or even more severe than what befell Southern Sudan at the advent of peace two years ago.
But most significant is that the rise of the Congolese star could mean that Africa's biggest potential is shedding off its coat of chaos.
The stability and development in similar former war zones; Angola, Mozambique and Sudan, is already reaping tremendous fruits. DR Congo could be on one great leap into joining their club.
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