Equatorial Guinea

Visited: May 2011

Duration of visit: 4 days

Capital city: Malabo

Population: 1.0 million (2011)

Equatorial Guinea travel blog reading time: 7 minutes

• Participating at a trade show in Malabo.
• Meeting at the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
• Extraordinary infrastructure built for the African Cup, while many people live in poverty.
• Visiting expats night bars in Malabo, where uninspired foreigners mingle with local girls.

I visited Equatorial Guinea in 2011 on a business trip, while working as commercial director for a security documents company based in Slovenia. Sightseeing, traveling around, and exploring the country’s attractions weren’t my priorities on this trip.

It was one of those adventures where you can’t tell if it will be a complete waste of time. At the same time, you might stumble upon an opportunity to form a business relationship that could eventually bring profits. Later, I realized that in Africa anything is possible.

Equatorial Guinea consists of two parts: an insular island of Bioko and a mainland region. Even though the mainland region is bigger in size, the main economic and political activities take place in the island, where the country’s capital Malabo is located. The northern third of the island has a number of small villages along the coast, but most of the island is still covered with rainforest.

The government of Equatorial Guinea is authoritarian and has one of the worst human rights records in the world.

According to the yearly Freedom in the World survey, which measures political and civil rights, Equatorial Guinea has a ranking of 7 out of 7 (least free).

Equatorial Guinea is also the third largest oil producer in Africa. As a result of increase in the extraction of petroleum, the country’s economy has grown significantly.

Equatorial Guinea has very high GDP per person, but most people do not get to share in this wealth.

The constant lack of civil rights, corruption and despotism has been ignored by international community on a big scale. It seems that the power of money used to contract international companies, fund foreign bank accounts, and purchase luxury goods in Western Europe is overwhelming.

These temptations make it difficult for the international community to impose sanctions on the leader of Equatorial Guinea and his family.

Current president, Teodoro Obiang, is one of the longest-serving presidents in Africa, serving since 1979. People have accused him of corruption, but even though many have tried to remove him, he has managed to stay in power.

We landed at Malabo Airport in the late evening. It’s only a 10-kilometer drive to the country’s commercial and financial center, but something struck me right away. The completely new, perfectly lit, and noticeably oversized highway had no cars on it. Its size and the amount of driving lanes has nothing to do with the impoverished reality around it.

We were passing small villages with basic wooden houses, where dimly lit bulbs were poorly lightening the surroundings. Locals live in basic huts, while we are transported in luxury cars only a short distance away.

Our hosts were proudly explaining the recent development. The country had been pouring millions of dollars into infrastructure to host the most important football tournament in Africa, while widespread poverty was visible on every corner.

The government built extensive new infrastructure to host the 2012 African Cup of Nations. New stadiums, hotels, villas, highways, and a presidential guesthouse. They also invested in a billion dollars in a conference center, a large resort, and an artificial beach.

I didn’t see any notable landmarks or exciting places to visit. Except for the business meetings, I didn’t find many things to do.

The main purpose of my trip to Equatorial Guinea was to attend a trade show in the capital city, Malabo. We exhibited our products there to find local companies or government institutions interested in doing business with us in the future.

We soon realized that most of our well-prepared presentations, perfectly translated to Spanish, were not going to be appreciated by important government representatives, nor local businessmen.

It seemed that anyone with some money and the initiative to print cheap business cards could call themselves a businessman in Equatorial Guinea.

Most attendees fell asleep during the presentations. Visitors cared only about basic goods like eggs, processed food, and simple machinery. I couldn’t find any local interest in high-tech products or technologies.

I was disappointed with the outcome after the second day and asked the organizer to get more personalized meetings at the Ministry of Internal or Foreign Affairs. The main objective was to discuss possibilities about providing solutions for security documents and technology.

We were scheduled to have a meeting at 2:00pm at the Ministry of Internal affairs, where the Minister himself was going to attend. I am fluent in Spanish, which gave me a great opportunity to speak directly with the decision-maker. I wanted to explain why they should improve their technology and show them the best solution.

We arrived to the Ministry 15 minutes before the scheduled time and sat down in the reception of the Minister’s office. He was busy. The employees, security guards, police officers and his secretary were coming in and out of his office.

I spotted guns and arms everywhere. Two of the guards were extremely exhausted and fell asleep right in front of me. They were sleeping like babies on their duty in an extremely uncomfortable position for more than an hour.

Every 30 minutes we asked when we were going to be received by the Minister. He never came out of the office. Nevertheless, his secretary kept saying it would take just a few minutes more.

After two hours of waiting, all of a sudden, two security guards in front of me woke up. They opened a metallic closet, took out machineguns, munitions, bombs and entered to the Minister office.

The secretary assured us, that everything was going to be OK. I heard the Minister’s office being locked from inside. Suddenly the secretary and us were the only people around.

Ten minutes later she grabbed her purse, put on sunglasses and started to walk out of the office saying:

“See you tomorrow!”

The three of us stood there, shocked, unsure whether to laugh or cry at what had just happened.

The Minister escaped through the back door with his bodyguards. Everybody made a fool of us once again. We knew that our best opportunity was gone. There would be no meeting tomorrow – Saturday, since we were flying back home.

It was Friday afternoon and we went to an upscale bar, Buddha Nights, the hottest gathering point for expats in Malabo. It was funny and a bit sarcastic when we told our friends about what happened that afternoon.

The last day of my visit was dedicated to explore the island of Bioko.

All the businessmen and the TV crew were packed into a bus. We stopped at a nice beach, Playa de Alena, and a small waterfall, but they weren’t very special places to visit.

Most of the attractions are actually in Malabo area. The country is especially proud of new restaurants, stadium, luxury residential areas and other facilities that will host African Cup.

During our visit, The Regional Parliament of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) was officially inaugurated. We were invited to a formal session of CEMAC Parliament. I learned that apart from its representative role, the CEMAC Parliament had quite limited legislative role. Maybe it’s just another institution for corrupted politicians with limited power and hardly any responsibility.

Thanks to our attempted meeting at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the persistence of the trade show’s main organizer, my successors eventually secured an important security-documents project.

This business trip will remain in my memory as one of the most unusual experiences of my career. It serves as a prime illustration of the unpredictability in Africa.

And that’s probably one of the most important reasons why I like to return back to Africa to explore it more and more, … but never again on a business trip.

Equatorial Guinea is one of the most mysterious countries in Africa, ruled by a brutal dictator with one of the world’s worst human rights records. Oil wealth has enriched a small elite who freely bypass global laws and norms.

Tourism is not a priority and the restrictive visa policy doesn’t promise to make Equatorial Guinea more popular to visit in the near future.