The Democratic Republic of Congo has established a task force to oversee the transition of its single-window foreign trade platform and develop a new governance framework after its current operator signaled plans to exit government contracts in Africa.

The task force was set up following a meeting of the supervisory committee of SEGUCE, the company operating the DRC's integrated single-window for foreign trade, held June 8 in Kinshasa and chaired by Trade Minister Julien Paluku.

Its mandate is to "review transition arrangements, oversee the handover process and develop a new governance framework ahead of signing a contract with a new partner," the Trade Ministry said on its Facebook page.

SEGUCE is the product of a contract signed in 2013 between the DRC and a consortium led by BIVAC, a subsidiary of France's Bureau Veritas. The agreement, originally set for 10 years, was extended by two years and is due to expire in the second half of 2026.

The Trade Ministry said it was stepping up efforts to safeguard the state's strategic interests, including by contracting with a different company.

The ministry attributed the decision to "Bureau Veritas's announcement that it would withdraw from government contracts in Africa and the Middle East." A year after the group's vice president for government contracts, Stéphane Gaudechon, expressed interest in continuing cooperation with the DRC, the French company decided to wind down certain public contracts in those regions.

Favorable context for Intertek

The world's leading testing, inspection and certification company did not specify which countries would be affected. In Kinshasa, however, the decision is seen as creating uncertainty over the continuity of the single-window platform, which is regarded as a strategic tool for international trade, transaction tracking and government revenue collection. The digital platform allows economic operators and government agencies involved in trade procedures to process foreign trade documents through a single portal.

The supervisory committee formally acknowledged the end of the Bureau Veritas partnership and tasked the new group with managing the transition and defining a new governance framework. The team brings together experts from the presidency and representatives of the ministries of Finance, Budget, National Economy, Portfolio, Transport and Foreign Trade.

The development could also affect Bureau Veritas's second contract in the DRC, covering the implementation of an import conformity verification program. That contract, awarded in 2006 to its BIVAC subsidiary, expires in November 2026.

On May 6, Trade Minister Paluku received a delegation from Intertek led by Jeremy Gaspard, vice president for government and commercial services, which came to bid for that contract. No information has since emerged on how the process is progressing, though the broader context could work in the British group's favor.

Pierre Mukoko & Ronsard Luabeya