Global investors from Kenya, the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and other countries arrived in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, for the second leg of the Kenya and DRC Investors Roadshow that started in Nairobi. The charter jet touched down at N'djili International Airport early morning for the delegates to begin a two-day mission of meetings and tour of enterprises in and around the city. Speaking at the plenary session of the meeting in the DRC capital, IFC Managing Director, Malick Fall, said the DRC is a victim of an image that it shed many . ago.
Comme aujourd'hui, 2 ans après, nous avons multiplié par 5 les effectifs de la SFI ici au Congo. Nous doublons chaque année nos investissements dans ce pays, et nous sommes encore loin du compte. Tellement les opportunités sont importantes dans ce pays.
Equity BCDC Managing Director, Celestin Mukabu, said challenges facing DRC are opportunities for investment, particularly in energy, mining, and agriculture.
The country is divided in five economic regions. We have the west region, where we have the Kinshasa town. It's already more than 15 million inhabitants. There is a lot of trade happening, especially when you want to do manufacturing. It's something which would be considered. Still to the west, there is an agriculture potential, so the food basket of Kinshasa is just near. More in the south, there are the mineral region, where there is most of the mining activities happening there. You have huge concentration of different mineral in the DRC. We have two time zones. This is the west time zones, but in the east, we have another time zone. It's plus one.
If you want to manage operations and to start, you could start it depending on your activity in the west, or you can start in the south, or you can start closer to the east region, where there is a lot of activities as well going there.
Mukabu said Equity BCDC customer base has crossed the 2 million mark and is poised to grow even further because the country is lowly banked.
The country is not yet fully digitalized, so that is an area where somebody could explore and see it as an opportunity.
Although the DRC is known for its mining potential, the ecosystems to the sector, including food supply, housing, transport, roads, and energy, remain largely untapped.
On agro-industrial sector, this is an enormous opportunity. The land is very fertile. Last time, we saw some maize growing in the bridge, and you could see across the bridge, there was maize. Nobody has planted it, but it was growing. So the land is so fertile, and it gives an opportunity of starting growing food. And the country used to be, in the past before the period of instability, a food basket in many aspects.
Kenyan Ambassador to DRC, George Masafu, said the Kenyan fraternity was proud of Equity, which he said has become the face of Kenyan enterprises in the country.
We are so proud to host the cream of the Kenyan investors coming to DRC, and this could not have been possible without the leadership of James and his team. James, we are very proud of your leadership for organizing this kind of tour to DRC. Equity Bank is now flying the flag. It is the face of Kenyan enterprise in DRC. What does it mean now for you investors who have come to DRC? Visiting DRC means you're looking for opportunities to invest, and you cannot come to a country to invest if you have no confidence in that country. It's an expression of confidence in this country and why you want to invest here.
The visitors were surprised by the opportunities in various sectors and were keen to find a niche in the country that is argued-
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Global investors from Kenya, the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and other countries arrived in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, for the second leg of the Kenya and DRC Investors Roadshow that started in Nairobi. The chartered jet touched down at N'djili International Airport early morning for the delegates to begin a two-day mission of meetings and tour of enterprises in and around the city. Speaking at the plenary session of the meeting in the DRC capital, IFC Managing Director, Malick Fall, said the DRC is a victim of an image that it shared many years ago.
Comme aujourd'hui, 2 ans après, nous avons multiplié par 5 les effectifs de la SFI ici au Congo. Nous doublons chaque année nos investissements dans ce pays, et nous sommes encore loin du compte. Tellement les opportunités sont importantes dans ce pays.
Equity BCDC Managing Director, Celestin Mukabu, said challenges facing DRC are opportunities for investment, particularly in energy, mining, and agriculture.
The country is divided in five economic regions. We have the west region, where we have the Kinshasa town. It's already more than 15 million inhabitants. There is a lot of trade happening, especially when you want to do manufacturing. It's something which would be considered. Still to the west, there is an agricultural potential, so the food basket of Kinshasa is just near. More in the south, there are the mineral region, where there is most of the mining activities happening there. You have huge concentration of different mineral and in, in the DRC. We have two time zones. This is the west time zones, but in the east, we have another time zone. It's plus one.
So if you want to manage operations and to start, you could start it depending on your activity in the west, or you can start in the south, or you can start closer to the east region, where there is a lot of activities as well going there.
Mukabu said Equity BCDC customer base has crossed the 2 million mark and is poised to grow even further because the country is lowly banked.