However, in Pointe-Noire, a port city that is home to about one-fifth of the country’s 4.5 million people, many say that any upturn has yet to reach them. Deschagrains Ebeh, 37, is head of De-Network, one of many companies that did well out of servicing the country’s rush for black gold. With the oil crash, “we lost 50 percent of our clients and 60 percent of our customers,” Ebeh said. Pointe-Noire Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Agriculture and Crafts president Sylvestre Didier Mavouenzela said that the oil contraction had ricocheted down the job market. Pointe-Noire’s port has recorded a big upturn in container traffic: 900,000 units last year after 800,000 in 2018.
