The Central Government, through the Ministry of Finance, has planned a total of 13 issues of Treasury Bonds for the last quarter of this year. Objective: raise 150 billion Congolese francs, or US$85.6 million, on the local financial market at the average annual budget exchange rate of 1,747 CDF per US dollar.

According to the official calendar drawn up under the mandate of former Finance Minister Henri Yav Mulang, October will see four successive issues, the first of which is announced for Tuesday, October 8, 2019. It will enable the Central Bank to raise 12 billion CDF.

The other three issues, each with a total of 12 billion CDFs, will take place on Tuesdays, October 15, 22 and 29, 2019 respectively.

Clearly, the Government expects to raise 48 billion CDFs in October, 36 billion CDFs in November (following four issues) and 66 billion CDFs in December (following five issues) in the hope of reaching the 150 billion CDFs planned for the last quarter of 2019.

The Department of Finance reserves the right to accept an amount less than the amount announced if the terms of the contract are deemed unsatisfactory.

These funds raised on the local financial market should enable the Government to finance public investments that will generate growth as part of the Head of State’s emergency programme, which is included in the Government’s programme approved by the National Assembly.

Eric TSHIKUMA