News (946)
DR Congo’s life insurance sector is seeking to expand into the artisanal mining industry, targeting workers who have long remained outside the formal financial system. On May 5, 2026, three insurers — Afrissur, Rawsur Life and Activa Vie — signed an agreement with SAEMAPE, the state agency overseeing small-scale and artisanal mining, to provide insurance coverage for artisanal miners.
The initiative is intended to provide financial protection for workers facing high risks of accidents, disability and death on the job. According to a statement from Afrissur, the partnership includes a group insurance scheme providing compensation to the families of miners killed while working, as well as coverage for cases of total and permanent disability.
Afrissur, which designed the programme, will oversee its administrative and operational coordination. The insurer said it aims to ensure a structured and transparent rollout under what it described as a “sustainable social impact” approach. The company also said the programme could eventually be expanded to include additional services, notably health coverage for miners and their families.
According to SAEMAPE data, artisanal mining employs several hundred thousand people across hundreds of mining sites nationwide. The agency supervises around 1,415 mining cooperatives operating on nearly 848 artisanal mining sites. For insurers, the sector offers significant growth potential at a time when Congo’s life insurance market remains concentrated among a relatively small number of formal policyholders.
The scale of the opportunity reflects the limited development of the market. According to ARCA’s 2024 annual report, total premiums written in the life insurance segment reached only $35.09 million that year. The market is largely driven by public administration clients, banks and financial institutions, and urban households. Extractive industries contribute to the portfolio, though still at levels well below the leading segments.
Beyond the commercial opportunity, the initiative also aligns with broader efforts to formalise Congo’s artisanal mining sector, which has long faced challenges linked to worker safety, social protection and mineral traceability. Congolese authorities have for several years sought to strengthen oversight of artisanal supply chains — particularly for cobalt, gold and copper — to comply with international standards on environmental and social responsibility.
Ronsard Luabeya
The Democratic Republic of Congo is testing a new approach to accelerating the delivery of social infrastructure across its provinces. On May 13, 2026, Minister of State for Planning Guylain Nyembo met representatives of the sino-Canadian consortium ANG to discuss an integrated development programme focused on the construction of social housing, hospitals and community facilities across several Congolese territories.
According to the Ministry of Planning, the programme is based on a development model driven by priorities identified at the provincial level, rather than imposed centrally from Kinshasa. A pilot phase is under consideration in Tanganyika province, although no details have yet been released regarding costs, timelines, financing arrangements or the legal framework governing the project.
At this stage, little public information is available about the exact composition of the ANG consortium. The Ministry of Planning describes the group as specialising in industrial and modular construction. Its representative quoted in the official communiqué, Augustin Kamangu Yuma, is presented as an architect and head of ANG Canada. Kamangu Yuma appears in the directory of France’s Order of Architects and is also listed as a founding partner and Vice-President for Design at Greenbox Innovation, a company active in innovative construction technologies. These credentials suggest relevant experience in architecture and construction, though they do not establish the consortium’s financial or industrial capacity.
The initiative reflects a broader trend in the DRC: the multiplication of integrated development projects combining housing, public infrastructure, community facilities and, in some cases, industrial activity.
In September 2025, a Qatari consortium led by Al Mansour Holding signed several memoranda of understanding with the Congolese government covering social housing, urban infrastructure, healthcare, pharmaceutical manufacturing and urban development projects in Kinshasa. In Tanganyika province, local authorities had already signed, in July 2025, a memorandum with Egyptian group Mahmoud Samih Holding for the development of a new city in Kalemie, including social housing, health infrastructure, roads and an industrial park. In Kinshasa, the Cité-Jardin de la Nsele project plans to build 5,800 housing units under a public-private partnership with Modern Construction. In Tshopo province, a planned agropole developed with ETIC International Africa Holdings would cover 100,000 hectares and combine agricultural infrastructure, housing, transport and storage facilities.
The projects aim to address a genuine need. The national housing deficit is consistently estimated in the millions of units. Yet the growing number of such announcements continues to raise a recurring question: whether the Congolese state has the institutional capacity to turn these pledges into fully financed, contractually secured and completed projects.
Boaz Kabeya
The Democratic Republic of Congo's state-owned cobalt company, EVelution Energy, and commodity trading giant Trafigura signed a memorandum of understanding in Madrid on May 13, 2026, aimed at establishing a direct cobalt supply chain between the DRC and the United States.
Under the terms of the agreement, which remains subject to final contracts, Congolese cobalt hydroxide would be processed at EVelution Energy's planned refinery in Arizona, potentially covering around 40% of projected US cobalt demand. Expected to become the first commercial-scale cobalt refinery in the United States, the facility is designed to produce battery-grade cobalt sulfate and cobalt metal for the defense, aerospace, and electric vehicle battery industries.
Under the arrangement, the Entreprise Générale du Cobalt (EGC) would supply cobalt hydroxide as part of its government mandate in the DRC, while Trafigura would oversee logistics, trading, and transportation, including shipments routed through the Lobito Corridor. The broader objective is to create a shorter and more traceable supply chain that is less dependent on trading networks dominated by China.
The deal signals a shift in how Congolese artisanal cobalt is viewed by Western supply chains. Long considered difficult to integrate because of concerns surrounding traceability, child labor, and mining conditions, artisanal cobalt from the DRC is increasingly being treated by the United States as a strategic resource it wants to secure.
Created by the Congolese government in 2019, EGC holds the exclusive mandate to purchase, process, and market cobalt from artisanal mining operations. Through this agreement, the state company could gain direct access to the US market, provided it can meet strict standards on traceability, social responsibility, and regulatory compliance.
The move builds on the strategic minerals agreement signed between the DRC and the United States in December 2025. That deal included provisions aimed at positioning Congolese state-owned enterprises as reliable suppliers of critical minerals to the American market, amid intensifying global competition for cobalt, copper, lithium, and other strategic resources.
A stake in the value chain
While the agreement primarily aims to secure supplies for the United States, it could also create opportunities for the DRC. The parties are exploring support for local cobalt refining projects, technical training programs for EGC staff, and a possible minority stake for EGC in EVelution Energy or its refining infrastructure.
Although these elements remain preliminary, they reflect Kinshasa's broader ambition to move beyond its role as a raw material supplier. Congolese authorities are seeking to use growing American interest in cobalt to negotiate technology transfers, strengthen domestic industrial capacity, and secure a larger role further downstream in the value chain.
EGC chief executive Eric Kalala said the partnership represented an important structural step for the DRC. He added that the agreement could secure a higher-value market for artisanal cobalt production while facilitating skills transfers linked to American industrial expertise.
For now, however, the memorandum of understanding does not constitute a binding commercial agreement. Volumes, pricing structures, commercial conditions, and firm commitments remain under negotiation.
The project's success will depend on several factors, including EGC's ability to align artisanal production with international standards, the implementation of credible traceability mechanisms, the construction of EVelution's Arizona refinery, scheduled to begin in 2027, and the conclusion of legally binding commercial agreements.
Pierre Mukoko
Petroleum development was one of the key topics discussed during Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi’s official visit to Kampala on May 11, 2026. The two heads of state held private talks ahead of the signing of six memoranda of understanding covering several areas of cooperation between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.
According to Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, his Congolese counterpart raised the possibility of jointly developing oil resources in the Albertine Graben, a geological basin that straddles the border between the two countries. Tshisekedi reportedly referred to a reservoir extending across both territories and proposed that Congo's share of the crude be processed using Uganda's existing infrastructure.
Museveni said he had accepted the proposal, citing Uganda's head start in developing the basin. “He made a proposal that I accepted, since Uganda has already developed the pipeline and is working on the refinery. DR Congo would like to participate so its share can also be processed on our side, where the necessary infrastructure is already in place,” the Ugandan president said.
The talks follow discussions held during Tshisekedi’s previous visit to Uganda in October 2024, when both countries had already explored the possibility of the DRC joining the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project. The roughly 1,400-kilometre pipeline is designed to link Uganda’s Murchison Falls National Park to the Tanzanian port of Tanga. The project is being developed jointly by Uganda, Tanzania, TotalEnergies and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) to facilitate exports of crude extracted from the Albertine Graben basin.
Uganda holds a significant lead
On the Ugandan side of the basin, two major extraction projects, Tilenga and Kingfisher, are currently under development. According to available data, Tilenga is about 63% complete, while Kingfisher is nearly complete at around 99%.
The ownership structure combines international and national stakeholders. TotalEnergies holds a 56.67% stake, CNOOC holds 28.33%, while the state-owned Uganda National Oil Company holds the remaining 15%. TotalEnergies estimates that, once fully operational, the two projects could produce a combined 230,000 barrels of crude per day.
The terms of any potential Congolese participation, whether involving pipeline access, refining arrangements or contractual frameworks, have not yet been publicly defined.
Meanwhile, in April 2025, the Congolese Council of Ministers adopted a draft decree establishing a framework for awarding petroleum rights to the state-owned company Sonahydroc. The text provided for the direct allocation of certain oil rights to the company under a service contract, particularly for Blocks 1 and 2 of the Albertine Graben.
Timothée Manoke
Ecobank RDC, Ecobank Group’s subsidiary in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and British International Investment (BII) announced on May 12 in Kinshasa a partnership aimed at expanding access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
According to a joint statement, the agreement includes a $30 million risk-sharing facility expected to expand the bank’s lending capacity by allowing it to transfer part of the risk tied to a targeted portfolio of loans to local businesses.
The initiative aims to widen financing opportunities for SMEs seeking to scale up, modernize operations, invest in new capacity or launch new projects. Targeted sectors include agriculture and agro-processing, industry, infrastructure, climate-related projects, renewable energy and local entrepreneurship.
The partnership also includes technical assistance from BII to improve loan portfolio quality, strengthen the operational capacity of participating businesses and support sustainable growth.
Joel Kabuya, acting chief executive of Ecobank’s DRC unit, described the agreement as “a major milestone” for SME financing in the country. He said it would enable the bank to provide long-term support to the private sector while maintaining international standards in risk management and sustainable finance.
Chris Chijiutomi, BII’s managing director for Africa, said SMEs remain “an essential pillar of economic development and job creation” in the DRC but continue to face major obstacles in accessing growth financing.
The deal is part of BII’s strategy to support African frontier markets. For Ecobank, it also aligns with the group’s Vision 2030 strategy, which prioritizes private sector financing, financial inclusion and the economic transformation of African markets.
Ronsard Luabeya
The Congolese Agency for Major Works (ACGT) announced on May 11, 2026, that it had terminated the contract awarded to Congolese firm Horizon Corporation for the modernization of Tshikapa airport, which serves as the capital of Kasai province.
According to the ACGT, Chinese partner SISC, which oversees the implementation of the infrastructure program financed by Sicomines under the minerals-for-infrastructure agreement, is expected to appoint a new contractor shortly.
The agency cited unsatisfactory progress on the construction site, as well as concerns over compliance with the technical standards outlined in the project specifications.
In an official statement, the ACGT said a joint mission with SISC SA was deployed to Tshikapa from May 7, 2026, to assess progress on the project. Experts inspected completed sections of the site as well as an erosion zone threatening to split the runway in two. Following the assessment, the mission concluded that the project was more than 11 months behind schedule since the contract was signed with Horizon Corporation.
Concerns surrounding the project had already been raised several months earlier by Kasai Governor Crispin Mukendi Bukasa. During a visit to the airport in November 2025, after heavy rains rendered the runway unusable, he said the infrastructure was no longer capable of receiving aircraft because of the advanced deterioration of the runway.
At the time, he also stated that the company in charge of the project had already received a $400,000 advance payment, although work had yet to begin in earnest several months after the project was announced.
Financial and technical disputes
Horizon Corporation, however, disputed the account presented by the authorities and project partners. During a visit by Infrastructure and Public Works Minister John Banza to Tshikapa in March 2026, Horizon Corporation Director General Horizon Massamba gave the company’s version of events.
According to Massamba, an initial contract worth about $3 million was signed in February 2025, but the company received only around 1% of the contract value — roughly $300,000 before tax — intended solely for site preparation.
He added that a second contract worth about $20 million was signed in August 2025, bringing the total project value to approximately $23 million.
Massamba said the delays stemmed from disagreements with SISC over several technical and financial aspects of the project. Among the main points of contention were the runway specifications, particularly its width. Horizon Corporation wanted the runway expanded to 45 meters to accommodate aircraft such as the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320.
The company also argued that the planned airport infrastructure did not meet international standards.
Horizon Corporation further said the suspension of work was linked to financial guarantees requested by SISC SA after the contracts had already been signed. According to the company, the Chinese partner was now requesting a bank guarantee equivalent to $4 million, whereas the original agreements had designated the ACGT as guarantor.
On the monitoring platform for the Sino-Congolese infrastructure program, the cost of the Tshikapa airport modernization project is estimated at about $23.2 million. The same data shows that the project’s financial execution rate stands at 21.95%, meaning nearly $5 million has already been allocated to the project.
Timothée Manoke
The Democratic Republic of Congo has issued its first dollar-denominated Treasury bond, a two-year instrument, just weeks after completing its debut Eurobond.
According to a communiqué dated May 12, 2026, the offering sought $70 million and closed at an annual rate of 8%, drawing $86.6 million in bids — $16.6 million above the target amount. The bid-to-cover ratio stood at 123.7%, indicating that investor demand exceeded the Treasury's initial supply.
The Finance Ministry said the auction also reflected an improvement in the terms available to the Congolese state on the domestic market. The maturity was extended from 18 months to two years, while the interest rate fell to 8% from 9%. In other words, the Treasury was able to borrow for a longer period at a lower cost than on comparable previous issuances.
A first dividend from the international markets
Kinshasa presented the result as one of the first effects of its entry onto international capital markets. In April 2026, the DRC completed its first sovereign international issuance, raising a total of $1.25 billion with the support of Citigroup, Rawbank and Standard Chartered. That transaction attracted more than $5 billion in demand, over four times the amount raised.
The Finance Ministry's reading echoes statements made in April by Central Bank of The Congo Governor André Wamesso, who said the success of the Eurobond could help develop the local financial market by stimulating long-term savings and bond issuances, including by Congolese companies.
Those signals have yet to be confirmed. A single successful auction is not enough to establish a lasting trend. The Eurobond prospectus notes that the DRC remains exposed to several risks: dependence on minerals, conflict in the east, fiscal pressures, domestic arrears, vulnerabilities related to money laundering and sanctions, and still-fragile access to international markets.
The authorities did not disclose the investor profile of participants in the May 12 auction. The ministry noted, however, that the public securities market remains open to both bank and non-bank investors, with the latter able to participate in auctions through their custodian banks.
Boaz Kabeya
Kongo Central Vice Governor Prospère Ntela Ntambidila on May 12, 2026 launched rehabilitation works covering 160 kilometers of rural feeder roads in the territories of Luozi and Songololo, according to a statement from the provincial government.
The works cover two routes: the Malanga-Luozi axis, stretching 95 kilometers, and the Kongo dia Kati-Songamani-Vila 1-Vila 2 axis, covering 65 kilometers. The project is financed by the provincial government through the Bureau central de coordination (BCECO) and will be carried out by Oriental Roads and Constructions (ORC) over a projected period of 12 months, according to the provincial government.
The two axes are described as key corridors for the local economy. Their rehabilitation is intended to open up several agricultural production zones, facilitate the movement of food crops to consumer markets and reduce transportation costs in that part of the province.
This new tranche is part of a wider program launched in 2025. On Oct. 25, 2025, Governor Grâce Nkuanga Bilolo inaugurated rehabilitation works covering 550 kilometers of agricultural feeder roads across the province in Kinzau-Mvuete, aimed at improving the flow of food products to markets.
The first phase of that program covered 230 kilometers of priority roads over an announced period of nine months. The routes included Kinzau-Mvuete, Seke-Banza, Mbatassiala and Lombo-Fuese-Kilukweta, in the territories of Kasangulu and Mbanza-Ngungu, with execution entrusted to the Agence des travaux publics du Kongo Central.
The May 2026 announcement marks the opening of a new sequence, with different routes and a different implementation arrangement. The statement does not specify, however, whether the 160 kilometers represent a new phase of the 550-kilometer program or a separate project financed independently by the province.
Ronsard Luabeya
In 2025, mobile internet revenue exceeded half of the telecommunications market's total turnover in DRC, confirming a gradual pivot in operators' business models toward data.
According to data from DR Congo's postal and telecommunications regulator, the ARPTC, the sector's overall revenue reached $2.394 billion in 2025, with mobile internet services alone generating $1.287 billion. Data now accounts for roughly 53.8% of market revenue, up from around 14% in 2016.
BDO RDC highlighted the same trend in a sector note published in May 2026, stating that data has become the primary growth driver of the Congolese telecoms sector.
The ARPTC's fourth-quarter 2025 report confirmed this shift in usage patterns. Traditional services such as voice calls and SMS are declining, while consumers are increasingly turning to multimedia content, messaging applications, streaming and digital services.
Average data consumption per subscriber has risen sharply. According to BDO RDC, it increased more than 24-fold between 2016 and 2025, driven by the spread of smartphones, improved connectivity and the expansion of digital applications.
Airtel still leads
In the mobile internet revenue segment, Airtel held the top position with a 43.02% market share in the fourth quarter of 2025, ahead of Orange at 28.44%, Vodacom at 24.63% and Africell at 3.91%. The regulator attributed Airtel's performance to the appeal of its data packages, the strength of its infrastructure and one of the country's most extensive 4G deployments. It also cited a strategy aimed at broadening enterprise access to data services.
The growth of mobile internet has come alongside a significant challenge: service quality. The ARPTC noted deteriorating service as perceived by subscribers across all operators over several quarters, a problem that has become more acute as digital usage increases.
Beyond revenue, the expansion of mobile internet is part of a broader digital transformation dynamic. The DRC had 73.9 million active mobile subscriptions at the end of 2025, for an overall penetration rate of 65.9%. The mobile internet penetration rate reached 33%.
Mobile money continued to advance as well. The ARPTC recorded 34.3 million active mobile money subscriptions in the fourth quarter of 2025, representing a penetration rate of 30.6%. The trend confirms the growing integration of telecommunications into digital financial services.
Boaz Kabeya
The Roads and Drainage Department (OVD) has awarded Hong Feng SARL a contract to modernize 22.021 km of roads in the city of Kalemie, in Tanganyika province.
Under a May 4, 2026 decision signed by OVD Director General Victor Tumba Tshikela, the contract is valued at $41.79 million, equivalent to nearly $2 million per kilometer.
The award followed a restricted tender process approved after OVD requested authorization in February 2026. According to the decision, the companies consulted included Hong Feng, Safrimex, Groupe Guang Ping International, China Guangdong Provincial Changda Highway Engineering, Kin Prestige, Colosse Construction, Bahari Engineering, Jin Jin International and Shandong Construction International.
OVD then sought a no-objection opinion on March 31, 2026, regarding the bid evaluation report. The opinion was issued on April 24, 2026, clearing the way for the provisional award to Hong Feng.
The contract must still complete the remaining procedures required under public procurement regulations before it can be formally signed and construction work can begin.
The project covers the modernization of an urban road network in Kalemie. The decision does not specify the technical scope of the works, the construction timeline or the final contractual terms.
Established in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2012, Hong Feng is a Chinese company specializing in construction and infrastructure rehabilitation. It has participated in several public projects, including the construction of the building housing the General Inspectorate of Finance and anti-erosion works in Kinshasa.
Ronsard Luabeya
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Airtel Money DRC, the financial services arm of Airtel DRC, posted a 42% jump in revenue to $194.8 million in 2025, up from $137.2 million the previous year, according to a report by Congo's postal and telecommunications regulator, the ARPTC, published April 10, 2026.
The Indian operator is now rapidly closing the gap with M-Pesa, Vodacom DRC's mobile money service, which has dominated the market since its 2012 launch. M-Pesa recorded $207.1 million in revenue in 2025, a 23% increase, according to the same data. The gap between the two players narrowed to $12.2 million from $31.3 million a year earlier. Airtel Money's average market share in mobile financial services transactions rose from 37.5% in 2024 to 40.8% in 2025, while M-Pesa's share slipped from 46% to 43.4%.
According to the GSMA, the global mobile industry association, even a slight increase in transfer or withdrawal fees can trigger a much sharper drop in the number of users or transactions. Fee levels therefore remain a key factor in users' choice of mobile money provider.
That pricing strategy helped drive Airtel Money's growth in 2025. In April 2024, the company announced a 30% cut in withdrawal fees and a 20% reduction in transfer fees. After the fee cuts, Airtel Money's active subscriber base grew 22.4% over the year to 11.1 million.
That growth, however, trailed that of Orange Money, the mobile money arm of Orange DRC, whose active customer base surged 50.4% to 7.7 million — the strongest expansion in the market, according to the ARPTC report. M-Pesa remained the market leader, with 15.4 million active subscribers, according to the regulator, which counts customers who have been active at least once in the past 90 days.
Internal billing advantage
Airtel Money's competitiveness in the Congolese market rests on a little-known internal arrangement. Between April 2024 and July 2025, Airtel DRC billed its mobile money subsidiary an average of just 0.61% of transaction revenue for the use of USSD codes, compared with 3.69% at Vodacom, 11.48% at Orange and 12.47% at Africell, according to monthly data compiled by the ARPTC.
The internal billing rate later rose more than fivefold, reaching 3.38% in August 2025 before settling at 2.90% in December. It nonetheless remained the lowest in the market throughout.
Airtel's ability to maintain a lower internal billing rate than rivals Vodacom and Orange stems from a leaner operating model inherited from Airtel Africa's expansion across 14 markets. The group, which reported 54.1 million mobile money customers as of end-March 2026 in its recently published annual accounts, operates on a shared regional technical platform and leverages its dominant position in mobile internet in the DRC. Airtel holds a 43.5% share of revenue and 38.9% of mobile data volumes in the country, making it the market leader in both categories, according to the ARPTC report.
The Congolese digital payments market is, however, evolving rapidly. On April 9, 2026, the Central Bank of the Congo announced a ban on cash payments in foreign currencies, effective April 9, 2027. The measure does not prohibit the use of the dollar, but requires dollar transactions to be processed through bank transfers, payment cards or electronic wallets. It is expected to boost mobile money transaction volumes in the coming quarters, in an economy that is more than 90% dollarized.
At the same time, U.S. fintech Wave, which counts 18 million users across Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon, has entered the DRC market and charges a 1% transfer fee. Its arrival is also expected to reshape the competitive landscape.
Idriss Linge, with Ecofin Agency
The Democratic Republic of Congo's public procurement regulator has suspended a tender for the digitalization of passenger airport fees, known as Go-Pass, after a competitor challenged the contract award.
The decision was made on May 5, 2026, by the Dispute Resolution Committee of the Autorité de régulation des marchés publics (ARMP), following a complaint filed by Veritas Engineering & Project Management Consultants against the Régie des voies aériennes (RVA).
The complaint followed the provisional award of the $4.06 million contract, including taxes, to Mayele SAS. Veritas Engineering, which also bid for the contract, said it had filed a formal grievance with the RVA on March 11, 2026, before referring the matter to the ARMP on March 19.
According to the decision, Veritas is seeking access to the minutes of the bid-opening session and the evaluation report. The company said it had submitted a complete application, including the required administrative documents, technical and financial proposals, and a bank guarantee.
Veritas also said it was never informed that its bid had been rejected and was not given any explanation. The company further pointed to a discrepancy between the amount announced during the bid opening — $3.95 million — and the figure in the provisional award notice, which was set at $4.06 million.
The Dispute Resolution Committee noted that the RVA had not responded to the ARMP's request for explanations. It said the issues raised required further review before a final decision could be made.
As a result, the ARMP suspended the procurement process and instructed its directorate-general to conduct an audit. The report must be submitted within 30 calendar days of formal notification to the contracting authority.
The suspension does not amount to a cancellation of the contract. It is a precautionary measure pending the audit's findings and a final ruling on the procurement process.
The Go-Pass digitalization project aims to replace the RVA's paper coupon system with an electronic payment mechanism. According to the authorities, the goal is to secure fee collection and reduce fraud risks at the airports concerned.
Timothée Manoke
Access Bank, headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, is preparing a new round of partial foreign divestments. Chief Executive Roosevelt Ogbonna announced the plan during a meeting with investors in the country's commercial capital, according to Bloomberg. The move follows a directive from the Central Bank of Nigeria requiring banks to limit equity investments in foreign subsidiaries to no more than 10% of shareholders' equity. Access Bank has 12 months to comply.
The development creates uncertainty around Access Bank DRC. The Nigerian group controls the Congolese subsidiary almost entirely, holding 99.98% of its capital, according to Access Holdings' consolidated financial statements as of March 31, 2026. In the group's books, the stake is valued at 13.2 billion naira, or about 22.3 billion Congolese francs based on a recent indicative exchange rate of 1 naira to 1.69 Congolese francs.
The issue is particularly sensitive because it goes beyond portfolio management. In its 2025 annual report, Access Holdings disclosed that it paid 1.8 billion naira in penalties for breaches of Central Bank of Nigeria rules and Nigerian banking law. Among those sanctions was a 200-million-naira fine linked to non-compliance with limits on aggregate equity investment in foreign subsidiaries.
At the end of the first quarter of 2026, Access Bank's portfolio of indirect foreign equity holdings remained elevated. Foreign banking subsidiaries represented 446.6 billion naira in book value, unchanged from the end of 2025. Compared with Access Bank Nigeria's shareholders' equity of around 2,143 billion naira in entity-level consolidated accounts, the exposure stands at roughly 20.8%, more than double the regulatory ceiling. To restore compliance, Access would need to reduce that exposure to around 214.3 billion naira, implying a reduction of 232.3 billion naira.
Several competing priorities
The key question is where and how Access Holdings will cut exposure. The bank can sell existing shares in certain subsidiaries, directly reducing the book value of its investments, or open those subsidiaries to new investors, diluting its stake while strengthening local capital bases. The first option would reduce regulatory exposure more quickly. The second makes more operational sense, especially in markets where the group wants to keep financing growth without giving up control.
The largest potential adjustment lies not in the Democratic Republic of Congo but in the United Kingdom. Access Bank UK accounts for 163.9 billion naira, or nearly 37% of the foreign equity portfolio. That represents roughly one-third of the group's excess exposure, but it is also one of Access's most strategic assets outside Nigeria. In 2025, the British unit generated 486.6 billion naira in operating income, compared with 84.7 billion naira for Access Bank DRC. A disposal in the United Kingdom would therefore reduce regulatory pressure quickly, but it would also affect a platform central to Africa-Europe trade flows, trade finance and foreign-currency revenues.
The situation in the DRC is different. The subsidiary would be relatively easy to dilute because Access owns nearly all of its capital. But the operation would be too small, in book-value terms, to solve the problem on its own. Even a sale of 30% of Access Bank DRC would reduce Access Bank Plc's exposure by only about 4 billion naira. Reducing the group's stake to just above 50% would free up around 6.6 billion naira. Relative to the adjustment required, the impact would remain limited.
That accounting constraint does not mean the DRC will be spared. On the contrary, it could be part of a broader package of minority stake sales, precisely because the group can bring in a local or institutional partner without losing control. For Access, the objective would be less about solving the regulatory equation in Kinshasa than about sending a signal: the group is gradually reducing its exposure, diversifying the shareholder base of its subsidiaries and responding to concerns from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
DRC: a profitable asset
The situation is more complicated because the Congolese subsidiary is now profitable. In 2025, Access Bank DRC generated 84.7 billion naira in operating income. Growth continued in the first quarter of 2026, with operating revenue rising to 20.3 billion naira from 17.2 billion naira a year earlier. Quarterly net profit increased from around 5.6 billion naira in the first quarter of 2025 to 7.9 billion naira in the same period of 2026.
The DRC is therefore a small asset on Access's balance sheet, but one that is beginning to contribute meaningfully to the group's African profitability. A 20% minority stake sale would automatically transfer one-fifth of those earnings to new shareholders. Based on first-quarter 2026 results, that would represent around 1.6 billion naira in quarterly net profit that would no longer accrue to Access shareholders. The earnings cost therefore appears larger than the regulatory relief such a transaction would provide.
In that context, the most likely scenario for Access Bank DRC is not an exit but a partial opening of its capital. The group could sell a limited minority stake, potentially between 10% and 25%, to a local investor, development finance institution or regional financial partner. That would allow Access to retain strategic control of the subsidiary while easing pressure from Nigerian regulators.
The DRC is not an isolated market for Nigerian banks. Both UBA and FirstBank also operate there. In both cases, however, the regulatory constraint appears less severe. UBA's 2025 accounts value its stake in its DRC subsidiary at 22.4 billion naira, while total investments across all subsidiaries stood at 260.6 billion naira, well below Access's level. Penalties reported by UBA in 2025 related to other regulatory issues and did not include comparable sanctions linked to aggregate investment in foreign subsidiaries.
FirstBank, for its part, initially acquired 75% of the former Banque internationale de crédit before purchasing the remaining 25%, making the Congolese unit wholly owned. But publicly available information reviewed for this article does not indicate constraints comparable to those facing Access Holdings.
For the Congolese subsidiary, the issue is therefore less an immediate threat than a period of shareholder uncertainty. Access Bank DRC could remain under the group's control while welcoming new investors. But the subsidiary is now part of a broader balancing act, driven from Lagos and overseen by Abuja: reducing international exposure without weakening the businesses supporting the group's African growth.
Idriss Linge, with Ecofin Agency
The Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda are expected to sign six memoranda of understanding aimed at strengthening bilateral cooperation in trade, infrastructure and security. The agreements are expected during a two-day official visit by President Félix Tshisekedi to Kampala that began on May 11, 2026.
They were announced by Congolese Deputy Prime Minister and Interior and Security Minister Jacquemain Shabani following the ninth session of the Joint Permanent Commission (JPC).
According to a statement from the Congolese Ministry of Hydrocarbons, experts from both countries spent several days reviewing the documents, which were subsequently examined at the ministerial level before being cleared for signature.
The Congolese delegation in Kampala includes Minister of State for Hydrocarbons Acacia Bandubola Mbongo and roughly a dozen other cabinet members and senior government officials.
The new agreements come as Kinshasa and Kampala push ahead with several cross-border infrastructure projects intended to support bilateral trade.
On March 5, the infrastructure ministers of both countries announced the launch of paving works on the first 15 kilometers of the Kasindi-Beni road, a strategic 80-kilometer corridor linking North Kivu to the Ugandan border. According to the Congolese Ministry of Infrastructure, the decision was aimed at reviving a project that had been stalled by a series of administrative and technical constraints.
The road is part of a cross-border road program launched by Presidents Tshisekedi and Yoweri Museveni in 2021. The program covers the Kasindi-Beni, Beni-Butembo and Bunagana-Rutshuru-Goma corridors, spanning a combined 223 kilometers.
The Kampala talks are also taking place against a backdrop of growing trade between the two countries. According to data compiled by the Bank of Uganda, official Congolese imports from Uganda reached $542.74 million during the 2024/2025 fiscal year. When informal flows estimated by the Ugandan central bank are included, total bilateral trade approaches $1 billion annually.
Alongside the commercial agenda, Congolese and Ugandan authorities are maintaining their security cooperation in eastern DRC, where several road corridors used for cross-border trade continue to be affected by instability.
Boaz Kabeya