France / Port concession in Africa : Bollore examined for corruption and influence trafficking
Bolloré in the crosshairs of French justice. Everything suggests that the Bolloré group will not escape it this time around. Indeed, on September 07, 2020, a former Cameroonian employee, Mr. Mendo Philémon Alfred appealed to the Public Prosecutor Financial Public Prosecutor's Office, Parvis du Tribunal de Paris. He denounces the illegal practices of the Bolloré Group for the award of the Port of Kribi in Cameroon. A case that is far from over.
Bolloré, A Bad Partner For Africa
When we talk about the Bolloré Group in Africa, we automatically see a major supplier of jobs. In popular imagery, it is an economic operator who strengthens and consolidates the economic fabric of the countries of the continent. And yet, he is not, this Breton is an extraordinary manipulator who achieves his goals by unorthodox methods. The most used is corruption with the mission of ensuring its hegemony on the continent to the detriment of poor Africans who are slowly dying. A dirty job which he succeeds thanks to the support of certain collaborators close to the African presidents. This is the case in Cameroon where at the slightest attempt to mention the losses that Bolloré inflicts on the State of Cameroon, his lackeys could put you on the guillotine. That is because, for them, the Bolloré Group has removed and continues to reduce many of the idleness and unemployment. Yet its record in several African countries leaves much to be desired. Bolloré was kicked out of Benin thanks to President Patrice Talon, to him, bolloré is a low-end investor. The bolloré group was the subject of a tax adjustment for non-compliance with the clauses of a contract binding it to the State of Senegal for the management of a terminal at the port of Dakar in 2018 where it was reproached for not having opened to Senegalese investors the capital of Dakar Terminal, its subsidiary located in Senegal. The port concessions granted to the Bolloré group in Lomé and Conakry are not to be outdone. French businessman Vincent Bolloré's indictment for "bribery of foreign officials with public authority" on April 25 says it all. Examples which are legion.
The Constitution Of The Bolloré Empire
It is a group resolutely turned towards Africa. As its president says, "what makes our group unique is its presence in Africa". There are no less than 70 companies there, established in 35 countries (21 French-speaking and 14 English-speaking). It employs 15,000 people (including 250 expatriates) in transport and logistics, and 3,000 in the tobacco branch (in 1997). In the main countries where Bolloré is present, we find the same layout: cigarette factories and sometimes tobacco cultivation, as in Côte d'Ivoire, transport control (railroad, port handling, transit activities and ships), plantations (rubber, rubber, palm oil, bananas, cotton and cocoa), to which is added logging in Central Africa. This pattern is strongly present in the following countries: Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mali, Togo, Benin, Congo-Brazzaville, Nigeria, South Africa, 'Angola. In addition, the Bolloré group is expanding more and more towards East Africa with Kenya, Madagascar and Reunion Island, where it handles half of the maritime traffic. The African strategy of Vincent Bolloré and his group is simple: it consists of controlling the entire transport chain, plus a few highly profitable production lines. The wave of privatizations, imposed by international financial institutions, allows it to buy as much transport infrastructure as possible and expand its range of tropical products (cocoa, cotton, coffee, rubber, palm oil, etc.). The management of rail networks has been added to that of ports and maritime lines to control the cost of transporting goods. Given the economic and political functioning of many French-speaking African countries, If one takes the trouble to trade and invest there, it is because they see more privileges and profits there than in France.
