THE CONGO THE WORLD FORGOT ABOUT

Republic of the Congo is a country that  the world and more importantly the African continent has turned its back on. 
Like many Sub-Saharan countries Congo-Brazzaville has been hit by the Civil war plague that destroyed the country in the late 90’s. It really is the same story that we’ve heard before, different strong men – fighting for power and none of them willing to relent despite the death of thousands.

However as I like to say, where there is a will there is a way. Despite poor leadership and rampant government corruption there is promise in the economy where young people and promising entrepreneurs can help take their country to the next level. As it stands the economy relies heavily on oil revenues and this is a good thing because it means there are so many other promising sectors that remain unexplored. As it stands agriculture constitutes 4.2% of the economy, services 25.1% and industry 70.7%, despite this majority of the population rely heavily on small scale farming i.e agriculture. The service sector should grow as the Congo River is phenomenal and the people need to realize that it is a cash cow. On top of that the government has launched a ‘digital governance agency’ to monitor all technology and infrastructure projects they plan to roll out in the near future, an indicative that World Bank is supporting via funding of an undisclosed figure. Currently Congo-Brazzaville has 55.7% of their population between the ages of 15 and 64, people who can work and reconstruct their country. Sadly, the unemployment rate still remains high at 46.10%. Citizens need to be innovative and create opportunities with the resources they have. 

The opportunities are there and the people especially the young people with the entrepreneurial spirit need to forget about demons from the past and make Congo-Brazzaville a country that they are proud of.

 Photo Credits: BBC, adaptationpartnership.org