By Kiki Kienge
Considered as the "good governance" man by the international community, will Paul Mabolia Yenga also seek to make the Mining Cadastre of the Democratic Republic of Congo his private kingdom like his predecessor, Jean Félix Mupande during 18 years of his management?
Paul Mabolia Yenga was for many years Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Mines in the DRC and the coordinator of the Technical Cell for Coordination and Mining Planning (CTCPM) since January 2019.
He was also national coordinator of the "Promines project" of the Ministry of Mines and responsible for good governance in the mining sector to promote economic growth in the DRC, a program that was financed by the World Bank to the tune of 50 million $US which ended in December 2018, he was also responsible for increasing mining production and added value, Mabolia is particularly involved in the issue of conflict minerals.
Originally from the province of Greater Equateur, Paul Mabolia holds a Master's degree in Economics in 1984 from the University of Ottawa in Canada, he joined GÉCAMINES, a state-owned mining company in DR Congo, where he worked from 1986 to 2003, in Kinshasa, London, New York and Brussels, where he held various positions in the roofing departments, sales, marketing and financial analysis.
In 1996, he was sent to New York as Vice President of the African Motals Corp. joint venture between GÉCAMINES and UMICORE, in 2000 Mabolia returned to GÉCAMINES as Head of Marketing and Financial Analysis.
In January 2003, Paul Mabolia brought Congo into the Kimberley Process and was the coordinator of the Kimberley Process (KP) in Congo in the office of the Minister of Mines.
He was responsible for issues relating to conflict minerals, precious and semi-precious minerals, gold and 3T minerals. As such, he chaired the steering committee of the ICGLR's Regional Initiative against the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources.
Politically, Paul Mabolia was for a long time the right-hand man of Diomi Ndongala, after the passage of Diomi to the opposition who now became one of the close to Etienne Tshisekedi, Mabolia had chosen to sew his relations with the Kabilist minister, Martin Kabwelulu.
The Head of State, Felix Tshisekedi comes to give his confidence to Paul Mabolia entrusting him with the direction of the Mining Cadastre, thus ending the 18 years of reign of the mythical and stainless, Jean Félix Mupande.
