Author: Nathanael Mavinga

The electrification of the cities of Gemena (Sud-Ubangi), Bumba (Mongala) and Isiro (Ituri) in DR Congo will cost 90 million USD under an agreement signed on June 5, 2021 by the Minister of Hydraulic Resources and Electricity, Olivier Mwenze Mukaleng, and CEOs Simon Hodson from the utility company Gridworks, Miguel Zaldnar from Aee Powers and Marc Alberola from Eranove. Signed in the presence of the governor of Sud-Ubangi, Jean-Claude Mabenze, and the representative of the governor of the province of Mongala, the agreement follows a call for tenders launched in September 2018 as part of the electrification project. of these…

The airlines Congo Airways and Kenya Airways signed on April 22, 2021 in Kinshasa, a memorandum of understanding in the aviation sector validating the principle of strengthening their regional partnership. Signed by the Managing Director of Congo Airways, Désiré Balazire, and that of Kenya Airways, Allan Kilavuka, this memorandum of bilateral cooperation is based on two major objectives after identifying areas of mutual interest for the two carriers. This collaboration aims to foster the exchange of knowledge, experts, innovations and best practices through technical cooperation. It also aims to strengthen regional partnership in the greater East African region through commercial…

Judge Dieudonné Kaluba was elected president of the Constitutional Court of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on April 20, 2021 in Kinshasa by his peers. He succeeds Benoît Lwamba Bindu who had resigned from his post for health reasons. The new president was appointed in 2020 by President Félix Tshisekedi as a judge of the Constitutional Court. He was elected head of the institution after a ballot pitting him against three other candidates, namely interim Funga Evariste, Jean-Pierre Mavungu and Corneille Wasenda. Born in Mbuji-Mayi (a city in the center of the DRC) in February 1966, Dieudonné Kaluba has…

The work of the 12th session of the general assembly of the Union of African Shippers’ Councils (UCCA), in collaboration with the Office de gestion du freight multimodal (Ogefrem), was opened on Tuesday, April 20 in Kinshasa by the chief by the Congolese State Félix Tshisekedi, current President of the African Union, in the presence of representatives of 19 UCCA member countries. “I believe that the coordination between the actions of the shippers and those of the general secretariat of Zlecaf will allow the achievement of optimal conditions for African economic integration”, declared the Congolese president, paraphrasing Kwame Nkrumah, one…

The protection of the investments expected between Qatar and the DRC, the modernization, the development of airport and port infrastructures, the strengthening of the capacities of sectoral experts as well as aeronautical and maritime cooperation, between the DRC and Qatar, constitute the basis of many agreements and memoranda of understanding that the Congolese Minister Marie Tumba Nzeza of Foreign Affairs, and the Qatari Minister of Transport and Communications of Qatar, Jassim Saif Ahmed Al-Sulaiti, signed on March 29, 2021 in Doha, in the presence of President Félix Tshisekedi and the Emir of Qatar, Tamim Ben Hamad Al-Thani. In infrastructure, the…

DR Congo-based mining company AVZ Minerals to sell Manono tin (Tanganyika province) to commodity giant Noble Group Holdings based in Hong Kong as part of the “lithium and tin Manono” project . A direct debit agreement has been concluded between the two parties for this purpose. The company intends to raise the necessary funds to be able to start construction of the mine in Manono. “In line with our recent lithium drawdown agreements, this tin concentrate agreement with Kalon will help the company meet certain preconditions that are demanded by our potential financiers,” said AVZ Minerals chief executive Nigel Ferguson.…

The Fédération des entreprises du Congo (FEC) and the Tunisia Africa Business Council (TABC) undertake to encourage and facilitate actions aimed at promoting economic partnership between Congolese and Tunisian companies, and strengthening relations between the two organizations, the development and widening of the relations of their members in Tunisia and DR Congo, under the terms of a three-year partnership agreement signed by Kimona Bononge, Managing Director of the FEC, and Anis Jaziri, President of TABC, Thursday 25 March in Kinshasa. According to information, the two Chambers of Commerce have come together to establish the terms of their collaboration, counting on…

The African Continental Free Trade Area (ZLECAF) will soon be endowed with tariff concessions and a preferential tariff in the customs field when the resolutions resulting from the work of the experts meeting in Kinshasa (DR Congo) for a closed workshop will be implemented. March 25, 2021. These experts discussed the updated Customs Tariff and aligned with the 2017 version of the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, the Republic’s lists of tariff concessions in the 2017 version of the Harmonized System, based on the draft tariff concessions in the 2012 version of the HS, previously prepared by all national…

The protection of investments on both sides of the two countries is at the center of the 3rd Tunisia-DRC Economic Forum which is held in Kinshasa from March 22 to 27, 2021 and in which 55 women and men economic operators from different sectors participate. “Tunisia’s solidarity with the Democratic Republic of Congo continues today, in particular by welcoming Congolese students in Tunis to universities and public establishments for quality education. The Congolese government is delighted that solidarity between the two countries is doing well, ”said Congolese Foreign Minister Marie Tumba Nzeza in her opening speech. In turn, the Tunisian…

Equity Group Holdings (EGH), a commercial bank operating in East and Central Africa, is benefiting from a USD 100 million (Kenyan Shilling 11 billion) loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to serve small and medium enterprises to terms of a level 2 facility agreement. “Together with the African Development Bank Group, Equity Group will be firmly positioned to help MSMEs (medium and small businesses) stay the course during the Covid-19 pandemic which has slowed their economy with an impact on corporate cash flow. We have seen the impact of interventions in favor of our MSMEs during this period. They…

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Treasury bill issues amounted to CDF 566.8 billion (USD 306.047 at the average budget rate of FC 1852 per US dollar) in 2020, including 15.5 billion in interest withheld against subscriptions received of 713.5 billion, while the announced amount was 994.5 billion CDF, according to the Central Bank of Congo (BCC). “Compared to the cash flow plan forecasts (PTR), the bid volume represented a coverage rate of 81.9%. For reasons of debt sustainability, the Treasury was sometimes called upon to reject certain offers. However, in the absence of a mechanism to stimulate the…

The National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will identify all aspects of the Agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (ZLECAF), in order to consider its smooth implementation for the economy of the country, announced its president, Christophe Mboso N’kodia, Monday March 15 in Kinshasa. “As part of our representation mission, we plan to organize two major activities in the next few days. The first will be devoted to the Agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area, ZLECAF. In the light of the views of experts from the Ministry of Foreign Trade, the DGDA, the…

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…

The Federation of Congo Enterprises (FEC) asks Prime Minister Sama Lukonde, who spoke with his delegation on February 26, 2021 in Kinshasa, to consider “the economy as the top priority”. “We asked the Prime Minister to make the development of the economy his priority because the missions assigned to him by the Head of State, in particular peace, security, education and grassroots development require that we have a strong economy. We also discussed with him the priority subjects including the reform of taxation, financial management and improvement of the business climate which involves reform of the justice system and the…