In a show of accountability, the Congolese First Lady Denise Nyakeru Tshisekedi revealed that her foundation raised a total of over U$2.2million during the 2019-2020 fiscal year.
In January 2019 Mrs Tshisekedi automatically became the First Lady when her husband Felix Tshisekedi Tshilombo won the highly competitive and tense presidential elections. However, the Denise Nyakeru Tshisekedi Foundation was founded during the election campaigns.
'I think it is essential for women to get together to value themselves. They must work together to find ways to be more autonomous and involved in different areas of our nation's life, be they scientific, social or economic. So I created the Foundation to turn this vision into reality,' Mrs Tshisekedi once told a journalist during an exclusive interview with Mining & Business.
On September 22, the Denise Nyakeru Tshisekedi Foundation held its first General Assembly and during this ceremony, she presented her activity and financial report covering the 2019-2020 financial year.
The foundation reveals that grants and donations from partners brought in U$1,642,800 (74%), contributions from members brought in U$333,000 (15%), and U$244,200 was from other raised donations (11%). In other words, a total of U$2,220,000 was mobilized during the 2019-2020 fiscal year.
The main partners of her foundation include the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Trust Merchant Bank (TMB), the Rawji Foundation, the telecommunications company Airtel RDC, KM Oil as well as the Promotion Fund of Industry (FPI).
When President Felix Tshisekedi won the elections, he vowed to stamp out widespread corruption and armed insurgency that have drained the country's billions of dollars lost per year.
Congo has trillions of dollars' worth of mineral wealth but the country remains largely underdeveloped, to the frustration of the population of 80 million people.
A determined Tshisekedi has taken no games in this fight against corruption- his own Chief of Staff vital kamerhe has fallen victim after courts found him guilty of mass financial fraud and sentenced him to 20years of menial labour.
It was not common in DRC for agencies or other enterprises to publicly reveal the status of their books of accounts. Mrs. Tshisekedi's public accountability move is being praised by several Congolese political pundits saying it would boost her husband's fight against corruption.
Source : https://taarifa.rw/mrs-tshisekedi-mobilised-u2-2million-for-her-foundation-in-one-year/
