Strive Masiyiwa once said by the time you see a horse cart then its too late…
Is it too late to talk about business opportunities in DRC? Not really because we have covered them before. Our 2018 book captured opportunities in DRC after an interview we did with one of our forum members based in the country.
DRC is one of the richest countries on the continent which is blessed with a lot of mineral riches but sadly its citizens are some of the poorest on the continent. So what are some of the opportunities that oear 2002ne can find in this former Belgian colony?
Absence of manufacturing companies
Kinshasa has a total population of 11 million out of the total country population of 88 million. There are no major manufacturing companies in the capital which mean the 11 million population is one big supermarket!
There is no meaningful farming activity in the country either despite vast tracts of land and all year rainfall due to its close proximity to the equator.
So the city has to import products such as;
Rice
Cooking oil
Sugar
Sea food
Clothes
Frozen chicken
Last year our government arranged a tour for cross borders to the Central African region and the cross borders managed to grab opportunities in supplying products such as sugar, cooking oil and rice. Of course the export of sugar to DRC did not start in 2018, it started around 2002 where enterprising Zimbabweans were hiring trucks and supplying tonnes of sugar with some coming back with receipts of up to $10.000 per trip! The demand for Zim supplies is not going down anytime soon as no new manufacturing industries are being set up in Kinshasa. They import everything they consume.
The poor road network in the country makes matters worse as it is faster to travel 4.000 kilometres from Durban to Kinshasa than it is to ravel 3.000 kilometres from Kinshasa to Tanzania. This gives Zambians and Zimbabweans an opportunity to tap into the 88m.
Thinking of tapping into DRC opportunities? Not a bad idea but go for French lessons first and then go on an exploratory visit and find out how other Zimbos are doing it. Some are employed as engineers, some involved in mineral trading and the majority involved in cross border trading. Some no longer have to source goods from Zimbabwe but from Zambia and straight to DRC.
