The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has all the potential to become an industrial hub for batteries and electric vehicles. To achieve this, the country of Félix Antoine Tshisekedi will have to meet the energy challenge and an attractive business environment that can facilitate Congolese integration of the value chain with strong economic potential.
(Special Envoy in Kinshasa) - "Economic integration of the Congolese in the value chain of the electric battery industry through innovative financial solutions" was the theme of the parallel round table that the Makutano think-tank organized on Tuesday, November 23, 2021 with the support of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
After more than two hours of deliberations, experts in the mining and electrical energy sector, mining companies, financial players, government, Géca mines, among others, have drawn the outlines of a challenge that is achievable but with enormous stakes.
For Mr. Vincent-Noël Vika Raissa Kikunda, Secretary General of EGC (General Cobalt Company) and an energy expert, the DRC will only be able to integrate itself in the electric battery value chain when it manages to settle its enormous electricity deficit. According to him, "the country will have to invest a billion dollars each year to hope to solve its electricity problem."
Currently, the country, which in the past, supplied its immediate neighbors with electricity now buys the surplus production of Rwanda or Congo Brazzaville. A situation that the actors consider inconceivable given the invaluable resources available to the country.
To this, Mr. Vika adds the absence of access to financing and sovereign guarantees. Faced with this state of affairs, he thinks that long-term energy purchase contracts can constitute guarantees.
Among other evils is the problem of governance of the mining sector is prominent, the fallout of which is slow to be felt, as well as a problem of structuring the sector, which vacillates between artisanal exploitation and the control of industrialists and multinationals.
Hence, the urgent need to change the paradigm to take advantage of a market for the electric battery industry estimated at nine trillion dollars (USD). The teams of Vera Songwé, executive secretary of the ECA, believe that the time to sound off a revolution has arrived.
For Antonio Pedro of the ECA, it is a question of seeing how to translate the opportunities presented by the DRC into shared wealth and added value for the country and its population.
In his opinion, it comes down to seeing how to change the paradigm to attract more investment. But above all, to translate local content into a number of things to allow the country to benefit from its natural resources.
Brandishing a study carried out by Bloomberg, Mr. Pedro estimates that one million Congolese can enter the value chain of the electric battery industry. He believes that the authorities must work to make this happen and have a lasting social impact.
Mr. Pedro believes that the DRC can copy Ethiopia, which succeeds in mobilizing the domestic resources of his country.
There is hope if ...
Despite the titanic challenges that the DRC must meet in order to integrate its populations into the value chain of the electric battery industry, there is hope in the eyes of the actors.
In an optimistic spirit, Mr. Louis Watum, president of the DRC Chamber of Mines, believes that the country must work to attract more investment from the private sector to the sector.
In his opinion, the DRC must learn from the experience of countries like Japan and South Korea, which have heavily funded research and development, encouraged strategic public private partnerships and innovation.
For Mr. Watum, "we must develop a mineral diplomacy that will seek strategic partnerships at the international level."
In the same vein, one of the panelists considers that special regulations are needed for strategic resources such as cobalt in order to regulate their exploitation.
Mr. Mabolia, CTCPM coordinator, for his part, calls on mining companies to pay their royalties normally to help finance research and development.
Jean-Luc Mastaki, an economist at ECA, considers that it is necessary to develop the concept of cluster and economic zone where investors will play a role in the transformation. In the same vein, it invites companies to adopt a responsible approach by ensuring that their activities have a positive impact on the social fabric of the surrounding populations.
Faced with the heaviness of the investments required, Mr. Celestin Mukéba, Managing Director of Equity Bank, invited companies in the DR Congo to come together in a consortium to convince the banking sector.
For him, local businesses must present modular projects that financial structures will be able to support.
Alain Kilinda, Director General of the DRC's insurance regulatory and supervisory authority, invites mining companies operating locally to be insured in the country so that the capital that this generates can be reinvested in the sector.
Jean-Luc Mastaki of the ECA, for his part, pleads for an improvement in the leadership of the local private sector so that it is able to carry the industrialization of electric batteries.
As a reminder, this round table supported by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) is held as a prelude to the DRC-Africa Business Forum 2021 which will be held on November 24 and 25, 2021.
This meeting, which awaits the participation of African Heads of State as well as the Executive Secretary of the ECA, Ms. Vera Songwé, calls for reflection on the theme "Developing a regional value chain around the battery industry and a battery market. electric vehicles and clean energies".
