We, Plantations et Huileries du Congo (PHC), formally contest the statements contained in the article published by an unknown person on the sites of Depêche.cd and La Prospérité dated April 15, 2024. These statements are false and defamatory. We demand that these media publish a correction on their sites within 48 hours in order to re-establish the truth, failing which the media which published the article and those which relayed it will be taken to court in accordance with article 360 of the Ordinance-Law on the Digital Code.
PHC, Plantations et Huileries du Congo, is the largest agro-industrial company in the DRC specializing in the production of palm oil and has existed since 1911. It is a private company which has two shareholders, the Congolese State, minority shareholder with 23,8% shares and Straight KKM2, majority shareholder with 76,2% of the shares. Straight KKM2 became a majority shareholder in 2020 by purchasing, thanks to financing solely from funds managed by Kuramo Capital Management, a New York investment fund founded by Mr. Wale ADEOSUN, the shares of Feronia which had gone bankrupt.
In February 2021, Straight KKM2 established an entirely Congolese leadership at the head of PHC, for the first time in its 110-year history, with Madame Monique GIESKES as Managing Director, and with the vision of creating shared prosperity for all. the company's stakeholders. The new PHC management team has managed to increase palm oil production from 45 000 tonnes in 2020 to 80 000 tonnes in 2023 and plans to produce 93 000 tonnes in 2024, and 100 000 in 2025. The number of its employees has grown from 7 000 to 10 000 today, all of whom have direct contracts with the company.
The new PHC management team has implemented rigorous and transparent financial procedures based on international best practices in management, documentation and reporting, respectful of audit procedures and compliant with all tax obligations.
Beyond its palm oil production business, PHC is engaged in the activities of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA-DRC), the flagship program of HE the President of the Republic to achieve the revenge of the ground on the basement. As part of this program, in 2023, PHC produced 52 tonnes of rice and corn seeds which were certified by SENASEM and made available to Congolese farmers.
The PHC company operates in rural areas of the provinces of Équateur, Mongala and Tshopo. In these most remote places of the country, in addition to producing palm oil, PHC operates 4 large hospitals with 460 sick beds, 16 dispensaries and 3 health centers. Each year, these hospitals treat more than 150 000 patients, perform 1350 major surgical operations, and allow more than 2 000 children to be born there. Additionally, PHC has dug and maintains 70 boreholes that provide drinking water to residents of PHC's surrounding communities. In three years, PHC built and equipped 23 schools of six classes each, 12 health centers, 7 residence houses for group leaders, a warehouse and 6 transit houses managed by the communities for their needs. PHC maintains agricultural service roads over a radius of more than 100 km. PHC supports more than 2 400 farming families living around its sites, which it has structured into 90 Agricultural Producer Organizations (OPAs) for food production and the marketing of surpluses.
Keen to further amplify this social impact, PHC launched the PHC Foundation in September 2023 which will bring together all of PHC's social actions towards communities and establish partnerships with other development institutions in order to benefit communities in rural areas. The management of the Foundation has been entrusted to Professor Mpoko BOKANGA, a renowned scientist who has more than 35 years of career in international development with institutions such as UNIDO (Austria, Kenya, Eritrea, South Sudan), IITA (Nigeria and throughout Africa), and the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF, Kenya) of which he was the first Executive Director, after teaching on agro-industries at Alabama A&M University (United States).
The financial success of PHC and its growing social impact on its surrounding communities are to be credited to the rigor and managerial expertise of Mrs. Monique GIESKES. This success makes people envious who do not hesitate to attack him in the media. The legal conflict, mentioned in the aforementioned article, which opposed Mrs. GIESKES to her previous employer has today been resolved in her favor in Congo and the Netherlands.
There is no crisis in the management of PHC. In September 2023, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of PHC, in office since 2009, resigned for personal reasons. The replacement of this administrator who represented the Congolese State shareholder is in progress. We are ready to collaborate with the Congolese State to approve a qualified and credible candidate in compliance with the PHC statutes and OHADA rules.
The PHC Board of Directors continues to operate according to OHADA rules and Congolese laws governing the operation of companies. If there is any evidence of financial wrongdoing, it must be reported to the court who will investigate and take appropriate action.
The new PHC management team, under the leadership of Mrs. Monique GIESKES, has worked to make PHC a model company whose decisions are made on scientific bases, supported by solid data and motivated by the need to respond to challenges. of development facing our country, particularly the need to feed our 100 million fellow citizens from what we produce ourselves.
Under the leadership of Ms. GIESKES and a Congolese management team, PHC reached unprecedented heights, increasing palm oil production by 77% in 3 years. This rapid growth was built on improved productivity while maintaining plantation acreage, increasing worker performance through training, better wages and living conditions, and promoting best management practices and techniques. sustainable production. Ms. GIESKES has successfully reestablished positive relationships with the communities surrounding PHC operational sites.
Committed to the company's new vision of creating shared prosperity through agribusiness, she has led numerous social initiatives benefiting employees and neighboring communities.
Not having understood the commitment to positive masculinity advocated by the Head of State, the authors of the article published on Depeche.cd and Prospérité seek to break the momentum of this worthy daughter of the country. They will be sued for defamation.
Plantations et Huileries du Congo (PHC)
Kinshasa, DR Congo