Participating in Investing in African Mining Indaba in South Africa, Jean Bamanisa shared his magic recipe for making the mining sector more attractive in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
According to him, the development of urban cities is one of the main ways to make the mining sector in the DRC even more attractive.
For Jean Bamanisa, the mining sector is structuring and we need to make it attractive, especially for multinationals.
“In relation to what I’m doing to promote cities and the Corridor, the mining sector interests us because we’ve already called on decision-makers and stakeholders in this sector. We’d like to see them take part in building the country, as Gecamines has done by developing mining camps and transforming them into towns. This is the case of Lubumbashi, Likasi and Kolwezi,” he said.
Jean Bamanisa Saidi also recalled the growing presence of mining in the country.
According to him, the real estate development system and the financial world must respond to this need of the population by granting them the means to acquire less expensive housing, instead of seeing today camps, compounds of miners.
“I’m against the idea of mining camps. When I was Governor, I had to initiate development plans. That’s what happened with Kibali Gold Mining, which built towns like Watsa,” he says.
This Congolese expert believes that by developing entire cities, miners will leave a great legacy after they leave, as there is life after the mines.
In his capacity as Chairman of Expo béton, he took the opportunity to announce that this meeting of city and corridor development enthusiasts will be held in March 2025.
“We’ll be holding Expo béton from March 12 to 15 to talk about mineral transport logistics. The Lobito Corridor is being set up, and we need junctions. We’re going to support public-private partnerships in order to have several concessions to link up the country. This would require an overall plan and the involvement of several ministries (Planning, Transport, Provincial Governments, etc.). It’s more than urgent to build railroads. I’ve been sounding the alarm about the need for roads around Kinshasa and in the capital, Central Kongo”, explained the head of Expo béton.
He also advocates the creation of logistics platforms.
“Today, we have over 3 million tonnes of mineral production. In 5 to 8 years’ time, we’ll be at 8 million tonnes. We also need to build public-private partnerships, build railroads, build rural and urban towns along the railroads to benefit from this corridor. We need a plan,” he insisted
Expo Béton is a trade fair for the development of cities, Corridors and Special Economic Zones. It is being held in Lubumbashi from March 12 to 15 under the theme: “DRC-SADC Southern Corridors: development projects and business opportunities”.
After the Kinshasa and Central Kongo sessions, it’s now Katanga’s turn to host this major event.
A number of other themes will be addressed, including mining, energy, employment, logistics, infrastructure and housing.
Nadine FULA