Carter Center has urged the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to modernize its mining tax system to better capture revenues from strategic minerals, particularly copper and cobalt, and channel them toward sustainable development.
The call came during a forum held on October 30, 2025, on the sidelines of the 9th DRC Alternative Mining Indaba Conference, which brought together civil society actors, policymakers, and industry experts. The discussions were facilitated by Baby Matabishi, Fabien Mayani, and Ismaël Tutu, and drew on a recent Carter Center study assessing the country’s mining tax regime, supplemented by case studies from Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, and Kolwezi.
Participants highlighted several challenges undermining revenue mobilization, including:
- Poor coordination between tax agencies and public authorities.
- The use of tax instruments misaligned with economic realities, such as the special tax on excess profits introduced in the 2018 Mining Code, which has faced implementation difficulties.
- Fragmented tax documentation, overstaffed administrations, and a lack of digitalization in tax systems.
To address these issues, forum attendees recommended a series of reforms aimed at optimizing mining revenues and promoting sustainable development:
- Streamline and modernize the tax system through comprehensive reform and digitalization.
- Strengthen transparency and citizen participation in revenue collection.
- Ensure long-term sustainability of the mining sector by financing exploration of new deposits.
- Eliminate unnecessary taxes and encourage strategic, long-term planning.
- Enhance revenue mobilization capacity and equip tax authorities with better tools.
- Establish a one-stop shop for mining revenue collection.
- Allocate royalties from state-owned mining companies to investment projects, including through equity participation in mining ventures.
The recommendations aim to ensure that the DRC’s mineral wealth contributes more effectively to national growth and improves the living standards of local communities, while strengthening governance and sustainability in the country’s copper and cobalt sectors.
