Browsing: Banking in DR Congo

The Tanzania Cigarette Company (TCC), the country’s main tobacco producer, is looking to expand its sells to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The DRC is already TCC’s largest export destination that has seen the company grow its 2019 gross profit earnings by 56 percent, more than double compared to the previous year.

Nonetheless, the tobacco company enjoyed marginal growth when it came to annual revenue which inched up slightly by 5.2 percent to clock 309.8bn/- up from 294.3bn/- the year before that.

TCC is not the only company eyeing the DRC for business, increasingly, Tanzanian banks are reported to be making venture moves into the DRC. However, until now, it is small businesses that were enjoying the huge market of the central African state.

Many small businesses have been transporting goods to the DRC for years and enjoying lucrative returns. TCC is only the latest of manufacturing titans to …

The financial sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has not been one of the most sought after in the continent. The DRC has 18 banks, five of which are local, four pan-African and nine foreign. The DRC’s ratio of bank assets to GDP at 7% lags regional peers, while only 7% of the population holds a bank account.

Similar to steps taken in markets such as Zambia and Ghana, the Central Bank of Congo (BCC) has directed that all banks must raise their minimum capital to $50 million by the end of 2020. Banks have a number of options, to sell and exit, to merge, to raise capital or to step down the regulatory hierarchy to be a non-bank lender or microfinance institution.

It is such a move that is seeing foreign banks seeking new partnerships and ventures to help them remain in business.

Dutch entrepreneurial development bank …