In an effort to achieve its commitment to becoming Africa’s breadbasket, the Democratic Republic of Congo aims to invest $6.6 billion over ten years in its Agriculture Transformation Programme (PTA). The announcement was stressed during the “DRC Agribusiness Forum”, held on 4 and 5 October 2023 in Kinshasa.
The investment is evidence of the commitment of the Democratic Republic of Congo President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi to develop the country’s agricultural potential and ease the economy’s dependence on the extractive sector.
According to Solomane Koné, Deputy Director General of AfDB, the Democratic Republic of Congo has 80 million hectares of cultivable land and four million hectares of irrigable land, its varied climate allows year-round agriculture, it has 7 to 8% of the world’s exploitable freshwater, and its approximately 125 million hectares of grazing land, sufficient for 40 million head of livestock, coupled with the size of its population, especially young and female.
“DR Congo incontestably has the means to be the breadbasket of Africa, the epicenter of the continent’s agricultural industry, and an incubator of prosperity,” said Solomane Koné, Deputy Director General of the African Development Bank for Central Africa and Country Manager for the DRC.
The Forum, held at the initiative of the Democratic Republic of Congo Government with the support of the African Development Bank and the International Finance Corporation, aimed to stimulate private sector investment in agricultural value chains and boost agribusiness in the agricultural-resource-rich Central African country.
More than 700 people from 28 countries participated, including government officials, representatives of technical and financial partners, heads of public and private companies, investors, and actors in the agricultural sectors.
The Democratic Republic of Congo presented its National Food and Agriculture Pact, made at the Food Sovereignty and Resilience Summit held in January 2023 in Dakar
At the event, the Democratic Republic of Congo presented its National Food and Agriculture Pact (https://apo-opa.info/46I0Bwg), made at the Food Sovereignty and Resilience Summit held in January 2023 in Dakar. The Pact is a product of the PTA.
Serge N’Guessan, African Development Bank Director-General for Central Africa, said at the request of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the African Development Bank will devote all of the country’s available allocations during the 2023-2025 African Development Fund (ADF)-16 cycle to operations in support of the Agriculture Transformation Programme, which is the backbone of the Bank’s Country Strategy Paper for DRC over the next five years.
The Bank’s delegation, led by Mr N’Guessan, included senior officials and several executives from the various areas of operations. The experts enriched discussions on the involvement of the private sector and of technical and financial partners in giving agribusiness a new impetus in DRC.
Other topics discussed included approaches for sustainable and resilient agriculture, operational challenges to improve the resilience of the agriculture industry, the financing of agricultural value chains, the potential of the cassava sector, strengthening agribusiness, and the role of public-private partnerships and of energy and transport infrastructure for agribusiness development.
Five main recommendations were made for developing agricultural value chains:
- Adopt a sectoral and project-based approach, with real support from the government (tax and administrative facilities, availability of basic socio-economic and energy infrastructure, etc.) for the revival of the agricultural sector.
- Limit all charges, fees, and taxes to a maximum of 25% of value for production and export activities.
- Set up a sovereign wealth fund to support agriculture and agriculture hubs to support and advise small agricultural investors.
- Strengthen decentralized territorial entities’ capacities and roles in the agricultural sector’s governance, ownership, and effective application of the value-chains approach and sustainable agriculture, risk guarantee and mitigation mechanisms, and access to finance.
- Harmonize the regulatory framework for Special Economic Areas (ZES), Law on Basic Principles for Agriculture, and Law on Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs).
The DR Congo Government reaffirmed its commitment to making agricultural transformation a key driver of development in the country, particularly through the necessary reforms and the establishment of a task force bringing together a number of ministerial departments and stakeholders to monitor the implementation of the Forum’s recommendations.
