by LUKE ZUNGA
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – RECENTLY I wrote how unintelligible Nigeria was approaching her economic development task.
At the same time the Nigerian President made pronouncements that African countries should allocate 15% of national budgets to health, and that Nigeria will defeat terrorism.
If the economy is inclusive and offers opportunities and is growing, these ills will self-deflate. I therefore will continue with invective insights into several countries.
The next country was Zimbabwe and now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The DRC has US$24 trillion worth of gold, 5 billion barrels of oil, copper, diamonds, tin, titanium, lithium and a variety of rare earth minerals which are in demand today.
But its currency, the Congolese Franc (CDF) is CDF2,875 to the US$1, one of the weakest in the world. How can that be, that a country with so much wealth has such a weak currency?
As in all African countries, the DRC government follows technocrats trained by French theorists to lock their minds. They cannot craft a development model of their own.
DRC is the second largest country in Africa, with 26 provinces, measuring 2,345,409 square kilometres, with a 37-kilometre coastline.
Before colonisation the DRC was largely the Kingdom of Kongo until the Scramble for Africa by the Berlin Conference from 15 November 1884 to 26 February 1885 that it was named the Congo Free State and became the sole property of King Leopold II of Belgium, who exploited its people, wildlife, minerals and timber for his benefit and later made it a colony of Belgium with capital Léopoldville, now Kinshasa.
The DRC gained independence on 30 June 1960. The history of DRC is incomplete without Patrice Emery Lumumba, who narrowly won the 1960 independence elections, contesting against Joseph Kasavubu from the more populous regional Bakongo tribe and Moise Tshombe from the large Katanga regional tribes.
Patrice Lumbumba negotiated with Kasavubu to form a government of national unity, which would bring all tribes together. Joseph Kasavubu became the President and Patrice Lumumba the executive Prime Minister in June 1960.
The transition was short lived by military mutiny, led by Colonel Joseph Desire Mabuto, while Moise Tshombe declared secession of Katanga Province in July 1960.
The Western powers refused to assist Lumumba to quell the secession. Lumumba invited Russia, the straw which led to his assassination.
After only three months in office, he was forced out by President Joseph Kasavubu.
“Lumumba was seized, tortured, and executed in a coup supported by the Belgian authorities, the United States, and the United Nations, white southern African governments, and died on 17 January 1961. With Lumumba’s assassination died a part of the dream of a united, democratic, ethnically pluralist, and pan-Africanist Congo,” wrote Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja.
Patrice Lumumba dreamed of a successful united nation and for the resources of the country to benefit the people of Congo, free from colonial domination.
The solution is to provide seed funding for the manufacturing and training programs. The funding must be placed into vessels.
A vessel is a financial structure which can raise further funding on its own, to seed more factories. A strong growing economy will increase government revenue and bolster a strong army and defence systems to protect its mineral wealth.
Government must inject initial seed funding of $10 million because the citizens are poor, and the CDF exchange rate makes it difficult for citizens to accrue enough funds to import machinery.
However, starting the industrial program would justify redenominating the CDF. The impact would be overwhelming. This is the only way to honour Patrice Lumumba.
That dream has not been fulfilled.
We presented to the DRC Embassy in South Africa proposals to push the DRC to move, because the big country has not started any impactful or robust processes to grow the economy or to change that country.
We also emailed the government but there was no response.
You see, the problems of the DRC are caused by the well-educated officials running the government, and as in other African countries, who refuse to adapt and perhaps without realizing it, are used by the imperialists, to stagnate the economies, causing wars, decay and ethnic conflicts as the byproducts.
We decided to post on www.organizecapitals.com proposals on industrialization, mining prospecting and exploration, commercial agriculture and how to raise capital outside the notion of foreign investors.
The aim is to reach out to DRC politicians and ordinary citizens, by jumping over the technocrats who frustrate new thinking, that the DRC cannot industrialize with such a weak currency, and can only watch their minerals scooped away.
The currency of a country is the acid test of the economy. The CDF has been depreciating. A currency is supported by production in the country.
A depreciating currency simply means the economy is not growing fast enough and per capita production is lowering, with poverty and unemployment increasing, amid complexities of informal markets.
The per capita production of Congolese averages US$743 per year, far too low compared to say, Monaco at US$256,581, US at US$89,105, Belgium at US$57,772, UK at US$54,949, Seychelles at US$21,633(the highest in Africa).
A depreciating currency deters foreign investors as well.
Despite mineral wealth a staggering 23.4 million Congolese suffer from food insecurity, 43% are unemployed of which 56% are youths.
Conflict among the Congolese and cross border insurgence have taken their toll, and most of the poor citizens are traumatized.
The average salary for those employed is CF285,000 (US$100) per month. The average lifespan is 60 years and declining.
In 2024, 7 (seven) million Congolese were internal refugees, with 10% of the population abandoning their homes in flight.
Millions have been killed. Over a million fled into neighbouring countries and abroad as refugees seeking safety.
The obstacle in DRC, as with other countries in the Global South, is the technocrats who refuse any deviation from the Apex rule, not to finance anyone to start or to raise capital internally.
They do not realize that the number of formal businesses should be at least 5% of the population. The DRC is short by 5 million formal businesses.
The focus on foreign investors will never be enough to close this gap. Get the facts right Hon. President Felix Tshisekedi.
– CAJ News