The new country director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Gabriel Leos, arrived in Kinshasa on February 28, 2021 from New York (USA). He replaces Egoume Bossogo who arrived at the end of his term in the Congolese capital.
The DRC’s new respondent to the IMF will have to be part of a new dynamic desired by both parties. The institution had conditioned the granting of a formal three-year program accompanied by the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) by the preparation of a realistic 2021 budget project, the restructuring of the Central Bank of Congo by (appointment of commissioners accounts and renewal of its Board of Directors), transparency in the mining sector (publication of the report of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) – which promotes transparency in the governance of natural resources – and publication of all mining contracts concluded, in particular those of MIBA and SOKIMO).
In support of the economic policy pursued by the Congolese government, the IMF disbursed funds under the rapid credit facility in favor of the country. The first payment related to the Balance of Payments, and the second related to budget support. Thus, the momentum taken by the DRC during the period from September to December 2019 was crowned by the achievement of all quantitative and structural criteria, according to official sources. The advent of Covid-19 had dampened this momentum. The evaluation of the Reference Program comprising nine (09) quantitative criteria, between January and May 2020, was indeed affected by this pandemic situation.
As a reminder, the DRC and the IMF were not working together. It was during the meeting between President Félix Tshisekedi and the President of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgevia, on September 30, 2019 in Washington, that the resumption of cooperation between the two parties was considered at the request of the Congolese part.
