Finance Minister Nicolas Kazadi of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has said that his country is losing more than a billion US dollars in potential revenue from mining. Measures have been taken by the government to halt these losses and reassure the population.
“Today, the government estimates that the loss of earnings in terms of exports last year was around 1 billion US dollars (editor’s note: over 600 billion FCFA). It could still grow. An investigation is underway. Computers have been seized, financial and economic information has been seized, and a trial is due to start soon”, said Finance Minister Nicolas Kazadi.
However, experts in the mining sector stress that if the country’s authorities are to succeed in halting these losses, they will have to tackle corruption and impunity.
MP Alfred Maisha, from South Kivu province, believes that the agreement signed between the State and Primera favours Primera Gold and does not take into account the interests of Congolese companies. He is particularly critical of the low initial investment by the Emirati company. “Primera company has been granted a tax regime that favours a number of unprecedented exemptions. (…) Where Congolese companies pay 12%, Primera will only pay 3.5%. We have calculated that for coltan alone, the Congolese treasury is losing 500 million dollars every month for the three provinces, for 25 years”.
Following this highly critical statement, the Finance Minister confided that the DRC lost more than 600 billion CFA francs last year.
Minister Nicolas Kazadi rejected accusations by MP Alfred Maisha that the DRC had granted Primera exorbitant advantages. He explained that some companies only declare a portion of their actual exports to the Congolese government.
He points out that the creation of Primera Gold was an initiative by the authorities in response to the conflict situation in the east, where mineral trafficking is one of the fuels of the conflict.
According to the Finance Minister, the creation of Primera Gold will make it possible to capture funds from the export of minerals from artisanal mining and prevent them from financing the war in the east of the DRC.
As a reminder, on 10 December 2022, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the United Arab Emirates signed a partnership agreement to combat mining fraud and smuggling in the artisanal gold mining sector in South Kivu province.
This partnership led to the creation of Primera Gold, which mines gold, and Primera Metals DRC, which mines the so-called 3Ts (tin, tungsten and tantalum). The DRC owns 45% of the shares, while the Emirates own 55%.
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