DR Congo seeks to boost agricultural trade through strategic UK financing
The Democratic Republic of Congo is seeking to expand exports across several priority agricultural sectors through a US$25 million financing mechanism backed by the United Kingdom. The initiative was the focus of a technical meeting held Monday in Kinshasa between Julien Paluku, the minister of foreign trade, and executives from Rawbank, the country’s largest commercial bank.
According to an official communiqué, the British financing is designed to reduce the risk of loans extended to local producers through Rawbank. The goal is to improve access to credit for operators in the cacao, coffee, rice, cassava, corn and palm oil sectors across several provinces, including North Kivu, Tshopo, Kongo Central, Mai-Ndombe, Kwilu and Équateur, as part of a pilot phase.
In the DRC, as in most sub-Saharan African countries, agriculture remains severely underserved by bank financing, largely because of the risks associated with the sector, including exposure to climate shocks, lack of collateral, the largely informal nature of farming operations and poorly structured value chains.
According to the Central Bank of the Congo (BCC), bank loans allocated to agriculture, livestock, fishing and forestry totaled only 187.8 billion francs (US$81 million) in 2024, representing just 0.8% of total bank lending, which stood at 23,346 billion francs (US$10 billion) that year.
For Kinshasa, the challenge will nonetheless be to turn the financing mechanism announced with the United Kingdom into tangible investment in agricultural value chains, against a backdrop of logistical constraints and security challenges.
Expanding into new markets
Beyond financing, Kinshasa is also looking to strengthen the presence of Congolese agricultural products on several international markets as part of its partnership with the United Kingdom. “Rawbank’s commercial director gave assurances of his institution’s support in helping the DRC tap Chinese, Emirati, British and American markets under AGOA, which the Ministry of Foreign Trade has secured,” the communiqué said.
The push is also expected to help consolidate recent growth in Congo’s agricultural export sector. In its latest published annual report, the BCC said Congolese agricultural exports generated US$519 million in revenue in 2024, a figure four times higher than the year prior, when receipts stood at US$119.8 million.
That performance also marks the highest level of agricultural export earnings recorded in the country over the past decade. It nonetheless represents only 0.4% of the total value of all export revenues generated by the country in 2024.
In the Central African nation, cacao and timber were the main drivers of agricultural export growth in 2024. “Timber exports rose 264.1%, driven by strong demand from Kenya to offset a shortage caused by a decline in domestic production. In addition, improved access for Congolese timber to the European market, thanks to the implementation of a forest traceability and certification system, helped boost exports. Cacao, meanwhile, benefited from the sharp rise in prices in 2024,” the BCC said in its report. Coffee and natural rubber were also among the leading agricultural export commodities.
