Global Sovereign in a Modern World with Jean Claude Kabongo and Jin-Yong Cai

The small French advisory bank Global Sovereign Advisory, founded by Anne-Laure Kiechel, supports Kinshasa in its discussions with international donors.

According to our information, Global Sovereign Advisory (GSA) has joined the list of advisers working for Kinshasa in recent months. Founded in 2018 and led by Anne-Laure Kiechel, a former partner of the investment bank Rothschild & Co, GSA notably participated in the visit at the end of April of a delegation associating representatives of the government and the presidency of Félix Tshisekedi to Washington. Last year, GSA had already offered its services to Kinshasa when the finance minister Nicolas Kazadi was seeking advice to review the agreements made with China under the presidency of Joseph Kabila (AI of 14/06/21). However, no deal was reached.

In the United States, the mission led by the Minister of Finance stayed in the American federal capital to attend the traditional spring meetings of the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). As every year, these are an opportunity to take stock of the support programs of the two donors and their future prospects. The Frenchman Jean-Christophe Carret, who will head the WB office for the DRC for a few more days, also made the trip.

Grand Inga on the menu of a meeting with GIP

Minister Nicolas Kazadi also took advantage of his stay to meet with the Chinese Jin-Yong Cai. The latter chaired, between 2012 and 2016, the International Finance Corporation (IFC, armed wing of the WB), before becoming in 2019 a partner in Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), the American investment fund owned by the Nigerian billionaire. Adebayo Ogunlesi.

During this meeting, which was attended by the special investment adviser Jean Claude Kabongo and his infrastructure counterpart Alexy Kayembe from Bampende, the main issue was the Grand Inga project. For several years, GIP has shown interest in the development of these mega hydroelectric dams on the Congo River. The objective would be to supply enough electricity for the construction in the province of Kongo-Central of a gigantic aluminum factory by the Chinese company State Power Investment Corp (SPIC).

Their desires were however constrained by those of the Australian mining giant Fortescue, which for the moment has the favors of the Tshisekedi presidency to develop the Grand Inga Rather than a rivalry of projects, Kinshasa is trying to stimulate a rapprochement between the two parties, whose contours are still struggling to emerge.