Inga III – A project kept in shadows

October 28, 2019 – This is the untold story of a massive hydroelectric project with the potential to power much of the Democratic Republic of Congo—and even a significant part of the African continent. For years, talks over Inga III have been taking place behind closed doors, between the Congolese presidency and two international consortiums. In a report published on October 28, Resource Matters and the Congo Research Group retrace the negotiations surrounding what could become the largest hydroelectric site in the world—and reveal that there is currently no guarantee the Congolese population will benefit from the electricity generated by the future plant.

Five out of six Congolese—some 65 million people—live without electricity, according to World Bank figures. With a potential capacity of 40 gigawatts, of which less than a twentieth is currently exploited, Inga III has been touted since the 1990s as a possible remedy to the country’s energy deficit.

Since 2015, the Agency for the Development and Promotion of the Grand Inga Project (ADPI) has been tasked with selecting a developer and advancing the project. Reporting directly to the presidency, the agency has handled the file alone. Key stakeholders—civil society, relevant ministries, and the Congolese parliament—have been kept largely in the dark, receiving only sparse updates. In October 2018, after nearly two years of near-total silence, the ADPI held a public ceremony to sign an “exclusive development agreement” with the China Inga Group and the largely Spanish ProInga Group. The agreement has never been made public.

This nearly $14 billion project—considered a priority by both President Félix Tshisekedi and the African Union—aims to generate at least 10 gigawatts under the latest proposals, quadrupling the country’s current output. Yet there is no assurance that any of this power will be set aside for ordinary Congolese citizens. In fact, five of the ten gigawatts have already been promised to South Africa to secure the project’s financing. In earlier talks before the October 2018 deal, three gigawatts were to be allocated to the DRC, though much of this was expected to go to the country’s mining industry rather than to households. Since then, even this modest allocation has been dropped from both the ADPI–consortium agreement and the final 2018 project proposal.

Negotiations will continue in the coming months, but tensions appear to be mounting between the two consortiums tasked with carrying out further studies, finalizing the design, and securing financing for this mega-project. Meanwhile, voices within the Congolese government are calling for a return to the earlier, smaller-scale version of the project—still expensive, but potentially more manageable—rather than the 10+ gigawatt plan now on the table.

With President Félix Tshisekedi’s stated commitment to improving electricity access for the population, the time has come to reposition Inga III within a broader national electrification strategy, and to make the project’s negotiation and development process more transparent and inclusive.

For more information, contact: info@resourcematters.org

This report is only available in French