DR Congo plans to launch its first stock exchange, its finance minister told Bloomberg. Kinshasa hopes the bourse, which will list securities in both the local currency and the US dollar, will tap into global interest in its mineral endowments. The move follows the strong performance of African equities over the past year.
The Central African country is the world’s largest producer of cobalt and controls vast stores of copper, gold, and lithium; its mining sector is estimated to hold $24 trillion of mineral value. Some of the world’s largest miners, such as China’s CMOC Group and Anglo-Swiss giant Glencore, own extensive multibillion-dollar assets in the country. The plan for a stock exchange builds on DR Congo’s push to make the mining sector more attractive to investors through a $100 million partnership with the US and the UAE.