Roger-Rigobert Andely reprises his role as debtslayer

摘要

Once again, the new finance minister, beloved by lenders and international partners, is putting on his fireman's uniform for Denis Sassou Nguesso, at a time when IMF talks are on the rocks. Whether he can pull off his magic a second time, however, remains to be seen. The name Roger-Rigobert Andely tends to reassure Congo's international partners. A year ago, he was appointed to replace the stroke-afflicted Calixte Nganongo as finance, budget and public portfolio minister. This meant giving up the helm of ARMP, the public procurement authority he had led since 2011, as well as his two-year-old board chairmanship of the Sino- Congolese Bank for Africa (BSCA). Nicknamed Bic Rouge (Red Biro, a reference to his bureuacratic rigour) Andely, 67, worked at the International Monetary Fund in the late 1980s. His key task now is to steer Congo out of more than a year of paralysis by clinching a rescheduling of the country's debt - equivalent to 20% of GDP - to traders Trafigura and Glencore so as to release IMF aid agreed in 2019 but since frozen except for an initial 10% tranche of $45m (AI, 04/03/21).