 This allowed, in particular, the Belgian Société Générale to build up an economic empire in the Belgian Congo.Huge profits were generated by the private companies and for a large part siphoned off to European and other international shareholders in the form of dividends.During the economic boom of the 1920s, many young Congolese men left their often impoverished rural villages and were employed by companies located near the cities, the population of Kinshasa nearly doubled from 1920 to 1940, the population of Elizabethville grew from approximately 16,000 in 1923, to 33,000 in 1929.