The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will soon begin a nationwide inspection of the subcontracting sector to enforce local content rules and promote greater transparency, the Regulatory Authority for Subcontracting in the Private Sector (ARSP) announced.

Miguel Kashal, ARSP’s Director General, said on October 3, 2025, that the initiative,  involving several government agencies and private partners, will ensure that companies comply with national subcontracting laws. The Federation of Congolese Enterprises (FEC) and the Regulatory Authority for Posts and Telecommunications (ARPTC) will take part in the audits, which he said would be carried out “transparently and fairly” to maintain a healthy business environment.

The announcement follows a September meeting between President Félix Tshisekedi, Kashal, and FEC President Robert Malumba.

Under Congolese law, subcontracting contracts must be awarded to companies at least 51% owned by Congolese nationals, but enforcement has been uneven. Before 2023, local firms often struggled to secure deals worth more than $300,000. Some tenders were issued in foreign languages, limiting local participation, while others used Congolese proxies to bypass ownership requirements, issues that the ARSP says highlight the need for a sector-wide cleanup.

Ongoing Lack of Transparency

The regulator says the new inspection is also driven by major companies’ refusal to share data on 2024 subcontracting contracts. The lack of transparency, it notes, has made it difficult to compile reliable statistics for a sector estimated at $8.5 billion in 2023. “The State wants clarity. Know who really benefits from these contracts,” Kashal said.

Despite these challenges, Congolese firms won an estimated $2.045 billion in subcontracting deals in 2024, spread across 1,282 contracts with 797 subcontractors. Roughly 98% of those contracts were linked to the mining industry, far ahead of telecommunications, cement, brewing, and agri-food.

The ARSP views subcontracting as key to building a national middle class and expanding Congolese participation in the wealth generated by the country’s extractive industries. Its registry of approved companies has surged from about 3,000 in 2023 to nearly 15,000 today. The updated list is publicly available to assist with procurement processes.

Meanwhile, a bill revising the 2017 subcontracting law is moving through the legislative process.

 Approved by the government at a Cabinet meeting on June 6, 2025, the draft introduces a dispute resolution system and graduated administrative, financial, and criminal penalties. It still requires parliamentary review before being signed into law by President Tshisekedi.

Timothée Manoke