New bank for Congo

According to Postal Bank (BPC) director general Calixte Tobangoli, the new bank has a capital of 10bn CFA francs.

The state holds 80% of the shares and the post and savings company Sopeco holds the rest.

"The BPC targets workers, craftsmen, retail traders, farmers and co-operatives," Tobangoli said, adding that at present, the 14,000 staff inherited from a defunct state bank "are mainly civil servants".

With the staff come the premises of the former Centre for Postal Cheques (CCP).

The new bank has branches in big urban centres such as the capital Brazzaville, the Atlantic oil port of Pointe-Noire, Dolisie, Nkayi and the main towns in the country's administrative regions.

"We envisage expanding across the national territory in the near future by using the postal network. That will enable us to meet the demands of people with small incomes, in remote parts of the country," Tobangoli said.

"The Congolese prefer to hang on to their money rather than put it in a bank," Olivier Kikouama, a 56-year-old private bank accountant, said. "In the past, banks have made them lose their meagre savings by going bankrupt," he noted.

Just 10 banks

At present there are scarcely 10 banks operating in Congo and according to the Banking Commission of Central Africa (COBAC), which regulates the sector, "only seven of these banks respected all the security regulations laid down in 2012".

"There are banks that sometimes don't respect regulations in this matter and take enormous risks," sector expert Philippe Missie commented. "Moreover, this explains the bankruptcies that led to the closure of several state-run establishments at the end of the 1990s. But in addition,the failure to repay loans - sometimes worth millions - that were granted to clients has added to the banking woes," he added.

For his part, Tobangoli said that "the environment and the framework for the banking profession did not make it possible to work in peace.

"Much interference in the daily management of financial institutions affects their performance," Tobangoli said.

A pan-African bank, Ecobank, has steadily been increasing its network, while French and Moroccan companies are also active in the Congo.

France has shares in the International Commercial Bank (BCI), which is part of the Banque Populaire group, and which has brought its expertise to the Congolese Mutuals of Savings and Loans (MUCODEC), where at least 250,000 civil servants have placed their savings.

Morocco has shares in Credit du Congo via Atijariwafa and La Congolaise de banques by way of the Moroccan Bank for Foreign Trade.

Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge