“UK Export Finance” Provides £500 Million Attracted by the DRC After Meeting with Mines Minister Louis Watum

After participating in the Financial Times Africa Summit 2025, held from October 21 to 22 in London, the Minister of Mines, Louis Kabamba Watum, took part in a high-level business meeting organized by the DRC-UK Chamber of Commerce, in the presence of the British High Commissioner for Industry in Africa and several investors.

Taking advantage of this working session, the head of Congolese Mines revived economic ties between Kinshasa and London, as the United Kingdom shows growing interest in the DRC’s mining and energy potential. It emerged from these discussions that a mission of British investors will travel to the DRC as early as January 2026, marking the renewal of economic cooperation between the two nations.
During exchanges with Minister Louis Kabamba Watum, UK Export Finance (UKEF) – the financial arm of the British government – confirmed the availability of a £500 million guarantee to support British companies wishing to invest in the DRC. This initiative constitutes a vote of confidence in a Congolese economy undergoing full transformation, particularly in the mining sector.
Another major financial partner, Standard Bank, already well established in the DRC, recalled having invested more than one billion US dollars in the mining sector. For its part, the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), based in Nigeria, indicated that it is preparing new investments in energy, infrastructure, and mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
These exchanges fall within the framework of the economic diplomacy promoted by the Congolese Government, under the impetus of President Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, aimed at attracting substantial foreign investments and adding value to the country’s critical minerals. With this new dynamic between the DRC and the United Kingdom, the focus is now on high-value-added partnerships capable of transforming the exploitation of Congolese natural resources into a sustainable driver of economic development.
It should be recalled that it was in the framework of the Financial Times Africa Summit 2025 that the Minister of Mines stayed in the United Kingdom. Focused on the theme of critical minerals and sustainable investments in Africa, these meetings brought together business circles, political decision-makers, and mining sector experts.
In his intervention in a panel, Louis Kabamba Watum reaffirmed the vision of the President of the Republic, Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, which consists of making the DRC a global hub for the transformation and valorisation of strategic minerals essential to the energy transition and the industrialisation of the African continent.

By the Editorial Team with Amedée