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The appointment of a DR Congo presidential insider as the country’s central bank governor is raising questions about the mineral-rich country’s future financial direction under new leadership.
Last month DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi named his deputy chief of staff for economic affairs, André Wameso, to lead Banque Centrale du Congo (BCC). Wameso’s 2021 bid for a BCC board seat was blocked after the IMF raised objections over his close ties to the presidency. Kinshasa was then negotiating with the fund for a $1.5 billion investment in a three-year development program — the country’s first in nearly a decade — as it struggled with critically low foreign reserves. The franc was under pressure and the government was eager to restore access to concessional finance.
The 50-year-old former corporate banker replaces Malangu Kabedi Mbuyi, a former IMF official who led the bank since July 2021. Under her tenure, DR Congo’s foreign reserves climbed from $1.2 billion to nearly $6.8 billion, inflation slowed, and the BCC’s credibility improved among investors and lenders.
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Aroni Chaudhuri, Africa economist at Coface, the credit risk firm, told Semafor the country remains vulnerable to commodity swings and external shocks. “The challenge is to preserve orthodoxy” and the new governor’s competence will be “judged on his actions.” He added that Tshisekedi “has every incentive to keep policy stable, orthodox, and predictable to reassure foreign investors, especially in the US.”
As a presidential adviser, Wameso helped launch ongoing talks with the Trump administration on a mineral rights deal earlier this year. DR Congo holds rich reserves of lithium, cobalt, and uranium — minerals that are globally coveted for their role in the clean energy transition.
“A key metric to gauge credibility will be inflation,” said Hugo Brennan, research director for EMEA at Verisk Maplecroft. The BCC has slowed price rises in recent years with a 25% interest rate aimed at hitting its 7% inflation target. Bond yields, the exchange rate, and the mining sector’s reaction will also be watched closely, he added.
Notable
- Democratic members of Congress have called on US President Donald Trump to “address serious concerns over the administration’s secretive negotiations” with DR Congo regarding a potential critical minerals agreement.
- The DR Congo government reshuffled its cabinet this month, The Associated Press reported, as it tries to bolster support in the regions it still controls while fighting rebel groups in the mineral-rich east.