Nearly two years after acquiring a share in Ametis, Madagascar's secure ID and duty stamp agency, the Franco-Madagascan oligarch Ylias Akbaraly and his firm Sipromad have still not reaped the fruits of their investment: the small Madagascan firm Mada OZI still has a firm grip on the contract to issue Madagascan visas. Sipromad bought in to Ametis in August 2019 (Africa Intelligence, 23/08/19) in conjunction with France's IN Groupe (formerly Imprimerie nationale), with Akbaraly intending to get the visa contract withdrawn from Mada OZI and reassigned to Ametis (it was Ametis and not its subcontractor which won the contract back in 2017). But Tiana Rasamimanana, the Sipromad chief of staff and trusted Akbaraly ally, has so far failed to elbow Mada OZI out of the contract. Despite Ametis having at his behest severed all ties with its former managing director Laurent Mandridake, whose nephew Jean-Luc Barson is the owner of Mada OZI, the little Madagascan firm is still issuing visas to tourists visiting the country.
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