Mwangaza Network : Key Challenges for Electrification in the DRC

The challenges facing the electricity sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are immense. Addressing them comprehensively would be overly ambitious.

However, through a diagnostic study of the electricity sector, the Réseau Mwangaza has identified several key issues:

• Scarcity of reliable and up-to-date data on the electricity sector. This lack of information affects many aspects of electrification, including the accurate assessment of potential, consumer statistics, and revenues generated by the sector.
• Insufficient and inadequate legal framework, combined with the lack of familiarity with existing legal and regulatory frameworks among the technical services responsible for their enforcement, as well as some operators in the electricity sector. This situation has led to stagnation in the sector.
• Weak collaboration between institutions in the electricity sector, largely due to a lack of clarity about each party’s responsibilities. This has also resulted in low transparency and a lack of technical and financial resources for these institutions.
• Weak investment promotion mechanisms. Not only are low budgets allocated to the sector, but it is also constrained by a tax regime that is unattractive to both domestic and foreign investors.
• Aging infrastructure and lack of adequate maintenance across almost all existing generation, transmission, and distribution facilities, leading to declining output rather than growth.
• Limited understanding of the energy transition, resulting in no electrification strategy that fully accounts for all the issues related to this transition.

The study proposes recommendations to help address these challenges.

Introduction

The Democratic Republic of Congo remains a paradox: immense energy potential on one hand, yet a very low electrification rate on the other. Fewer than 10% of Congolese have access to electricity — 35% in urban areas (50% in Kinshasa) and less than 1% in rural areas — with sharp regional disparities, particularly in the north where access is extremely low.

A study by Resource Matters, Electrification of the DRC: Searching for Solutions, highlighted that the DRC has abundant energy resources, but fewer than 20% of its 80 million inhabitants have access to electricity. Production and consumption are concentrated around Kinshasa and the mining regions, while the north and central parts of the country have little to no supply.

In 2014, the DRC enacted a law liberalizing the electricity sector, which had previously been monopolized by the state-owned SNEL (Société Nationale d’Électricité). Eight years after its promulgation, no major progress has been observed in the sector’s operation or in measures to improve access to electricity. The country remains largely in the dark and unable to provide all electricity-related services, with access still at the lowest levels.

This raises questions about the real bottlenecks preventing better electrification in the DRC:

• Governance issues?

• Lack of investors in the provinces?

• Insufficient initiative?

• Poor planning?

• Equipment shortages?

• Skilled labor shortages?

Today, Kinshasa still experiences power outages and poor-quality supply, except in the Gombe district. The situation in the provinces is even more challenging, particularly since the country’s administrative pision expanded from 11 to 26 provinces, most of which lack the resources for development.

The liberalization of the electricity sector was intended to attract investment. Eight years later, only a handful of investors have entered the sector, and their projects have rarely resulted in effective electrification of the targeted areas. Some examples of electrification projects include:

Goma:

• Nuru: 1.3 MW
• Virunga: 13 MW
• SOCODEE

Kasaï-Oriental:

• Tembo Power: in progress
• Tshipuka Solar Project: 10 MWp, in progress

Ituri:

• Nuru: in progress
• UNDP: in progress
• Kibali

Lualaba:

• Busanga
• Luilu I, II, and III

South Kivu:

• Luvungu
• Idjwi

Haut-Katanga:

• Sombwe: in progress
• Fungurume: 2.4 MWp

Committed to improving electrification rates and ensuring access to affordable, clean, and sustainable energy for all, the Réseau Mwangaza conducted diagnostic studies to identify core bottlenecks to electrification in various provinces — and, by extension, across the country. This note summarizes the findings for each province where network members are active, based on data collected throughout 2021.

Full studies are available in french at the following links:

• Key Challenges for Electrification in the DR
• Haut-Katanga Province
• Ituri Province
• Kasaï-Oriental Province
• Kinshasa City-Province
• Lualaba Province
• North Kivu Province
• South Kivu Province

Mwangaza Network