As of Monday, October 7, 2019, the city-province of Kinshasa will experience disruptions in the supply of electricity. According to the National Electricity Company (SNEL), this situation is justified by the withdrawal of Group N°7 from the Inga II power plant for maintenance.

In an official statement, SNEL’s Kinshasa Distribution Department (DDK) apologizes for the inconvenience its customers will suffer during the two-week construction period from October 7 to 21, 2019.

In 2019, the electricity supply rate is 8% in urban areas and 1% in rural areas. This is far below the African average.

In its national strategy, the Government intends to encourage investors to seize the opportunity to exploit the potential of 100,000 megawatts from pico, micro and mini hydroelectric power plants, out of the 890 sites identified throughout the Republic’s 145 territories.

Meanwhile, the recent Electric Power Forum held in Matadi, Central Kongo, under the patronage of the President of the Republic, identified six challenges to attracting investment in this growth-generating sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo. These are respectively:

• the application to facilitate the operationalization of Law No. 014/011 of 17 June 2014 liberalizing the electricity sector;
• the establishment of the Energy Sector Regulatory Authority created by Law No. 014/011 of 17 June 2014;
• the completion of the SNEL transformation process as part of the reform of public companies;
• the segmentation and organisation of the 3 sectors of the sector, namely: production, transmission and distribution of electricity;
  the establishment of the National Agency for Electrification and Energy Services in Rural and Peri-Urban Areas provided for by Law No. 014/011 of 17 June 2014;
• strengthening the capacities of the provinces to effectively manage Public-Public-Private Partnership projects in general and concession award processes in particular.

Emilie MBOYO