The establishment of a battery industry in the DRC is the backdrop to the value chain workshop which opened in Kinshasa on Monday September 25 and closes on Tuesday, one day later. All stages are examined in detail at this major event organized by the Congolese Battery Council (CCB) in collaboration with the US State Department.
Politicians, investors and mining sector experts discuss the path to follow to materialize the project, based on the studies carried out and the data collected. "This event represents the culmination of a great deal of work since the creation of the Congolese Battery Council", informs the public service press cell.
Speaking on behalf of the national executive, Finance Minister Nicolas Kazadi welcomed participants to the forum, saying that they would be laying the foundations for a major project to industrialize the DRC. But also, he stressed, it will serve as an engine for growth, in particular to rebuild and modernize industrial infrastructures.
Taking into account humanity's race for a cleaner planet, the national argentier acknowledged that his country has only served as a reservoir of raw materials for industrialized countries. And yet, he pointed out, Congo-Kinshasa produces and supplies large quantities of raw materials for the electric mobility industry.
A paradigm shift
Minister Kazadi sees the Kinshasa meeting as an intense opportunity to reflect on the positioning of Félix Tshisekedi's country in the electric battery value chain. According to Kazadi, the Congolese challenge is to set up an industrial chain that does not stop at the extraction of raw materials. However, he continues, the aim is also to ensure refining within the country's borders, and processing through to the production of the battery, or even the electric vehicle.
" In addition to its integrative nature at national level, we want this project to be cross-border, even regional. In fact, as its initiator, the President of the Republic, has repeatedly said, this project will bring us closer to our neighbors and our other African brothers, because, despite the abundance of its subsoil, the DR Congo does not have all the materials required to manufacture electric batteries. For example, it has no known graphite resources, even though this material is one of the battery's major components. Neighboring Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar are among the world's leading graphite producers." he commented.
In his own words, the member of the government assures us that the electric battery value chain project has many windows of opportunity. These, he adds, will enable the country to build bridges of collaboration for a better industrialization of the continent. "It is therefore up to you to propose to the government how we can communitize our resources and efforts with other African countries willing to embark on this electric mobility race", he addressed the participants. Nicolas Kazadi concluded by saying that the national executive had high expectations of this forum, which should open up new investment niches for the country with a view to accelerating its industrialization.
Partners' expectations
The Kinshasa workshop aims to explain and detail the agreement signed between the DRC, Zambia and the United States of America to create a sustainable and safe battery value chain, according to Abigail Wulf, head of the non-profit organization Safe. "We're going to work together - the DRC, Zambia and the United States - to pool our forces and bring in experts, so that the Congo is no longer limited to extracting raw products, but can transform them here. With American and other African experts, we can ensure that Congo is no longer at the bottom of the value chain", she explained.
Ms. Wulf reminds us that her Asbl insists on the work of experts so that the Congo no longer limits itself to extracting raw products, but transforms them. “[… ] It is really a work of expertise and study, after these studies, we can see what could be done on site because it will not be done in a day, create factories. It will take a long time”, she concludes.