Investors Team

With over thirty years of experience from the mining sector Eric has built his career on delivering profitable projects benefiting his country.  As a native Congolese he has a firm belief in the important role that energy plays in every aspect of Congolese economic and social development.

Educated as an economist from the University in Kinshasa, he started his career in the banking sector. In 2001, he founded Trade Service, a national leading design and logistics firm focusing on taxation, facilitation of trade and customs clearance, for which he currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors.  In 2006 he founded SMM, a hi-tech laboratory serving the mining industry.

In 2013 he was elected as the provincial president of The Federation of Businesses in the Congo (FEC) in Katanga. Since the liberation of the energy sector in 2014, he has been leading the National Committee of Energy in FEC and he is the founder of the annual National Conference on Energy in DRC. In 2020 he was elected as the vice president of FEC.

As an independent economist and entrepreneur he has shared his experience as a member of several governmental committees, like the rewriting of the Mining Code of 2002 and the New Energy Code of 2014.He is regularly invited to international conferences such as Mining Indaba and the annual conference of the Clinton Global Initiative, Eric is also a popular speaker and panellist in leading international mining and energy conferences, like the PWA.

In 2020 he became a partner in Trade Power, a Congolese trade agency for renewable energy.

Yamandou is an experienced voice, satellite, and mobile telecommunications executive with a keen eye for emerging markets. He founded ASG Telecommunications in 1996 and oversaw its expansion from a mobile device wholesaler to a key voice and satellite network integrator and supplier for both mobile operators and NGO’s. As co-founder of T+, the second mobile operator in the Cape Verde Islands, he oversaw a significant development impact by modernising and expanding the telecommunications services in the region, by promoting competition in the market and contributing to the increase of reliable and affordable communications services.

In 2006, he crossed into the transportation industry, to integrate his technology background with a newfound consciousness of sustainable transportation. GoGreenRide was born out of a commitment to develop green transportation, cutting edge technology with outstanding customer service, to create a truly unique alternative and has recently been acquired by a larger transportation group in New York.

He brings the experience of creating organisation from the ground up, along with a diverse list of competencies necessary to get Kipay projects off the ground. Supplementing his work, Yamandou is also a co-founder of The Georges Malaika Foundation, a non-profit organisation focused in providing educational opportunities for girls in The Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2018 he founded Makeba, a fintech platform giving everyone access to the same financial tools no matter where they live. Makeba offer low cost money transfer and payment solutions for smartphones.