Lusaka, Zambia, 11 September 2025 (ECA) - The Economic Commission for Africa, Sub-Regional Offices for Southern Africa (SRO-SA) and Central Africa (SRO-CA) organised a two-day workshop from 3rd to 4th September 2025 focused on strengthening the capacity of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and Financial Institutions in the Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC) and Zambia to utilise opportunities from the Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) value chain under the Special Economic Zones Initiative between the two counties.
The overall objectives of the workshop were to raise awareness among MSMEs and other stakeholders on the opportunities along the BEV value chain, strengthen the technical capacity of MSMEs to participate in the value chain through enhancing their knowledge of the sector and to share experiences on the available sources of funding for specific activities along the value chain.
Ms. Angelina Mukuka, Acting Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry officially opened the workshop and underscored the alignment of the joint DRC-Zambia Battery Electric Vehicle initiative with Zambia’s Eighth National Development Plan and the national local content strategies. She noted that local content regulations are central to enhancing the participation of local entrepreneurs in national development and in facilitating technology and skills transfer. The Acting Permanent Secretary emphasized that it is through local content strategies that jobs are created for the youth and women towards raising incomes and ultimately ensuring that the sector contributes to poverty reduction.
She highlighted the importance of strategic partnerships and informed the participants that, “the Kingdom of Morocco, a country with years of experience and expertise as well as the necessary technology is willing to support the emergence of robust value chains such as batteries, electric cars and renewable energy and eliminate the excessive dependence on the export of raw material resources”.
Ms. Olayinka Bandele, Chief, Inclusive Industrialisation Section, ECA Sub-regional Office for Southern Africa, emphasised the potential of the BEV sector from exploration, mine development, mining, mineral processing and the marketing of the minerals which can be exploited by stakeholders. She indicated that, “the BEV sector is set to grow from 8.8 trillion USD in 2025 to 46 trillion USD by 2050 worldwide and Africa’s participation in this market could boost continental Gross Domestic Product by an estimated 12 percent or more by 2050; Zambia and DRC hold 70 percent of global cobalt reserves and DRC also boasts about 60 percent of the world’s lithium reserves both pointing to the opportunities for the two countries.”
The workshop was enriched by technical presentations and updates on Zambia-DRC Battery Electric Vehicle Special Economic Zones Initiative. Other key interventions were on materials supply chain, technical opportunities in the sector, collaboration possibilities; support to the entry of MSMEs into the BEV value chain through recalibrating local content frameworks and policies, addressing the specific capacity needs of women and youth in the BEV Value Chain, technical support available from the Government and its institutions and financing strategies in the sector.
Presentations by ZANACO, Standard Chartered Bank, ECO Bank, Indo Zambia Bank and the National Association of Savings Cooperation provided insights into the available financing instruments which MSMEs could explore for investment and working capital requirements. The institutions specifically mentioned relaxed collateral terms for SMEs, flexible loans, bank guarantees and letters of credit, as well as non-financial products such as financial literacy services being available to MSMEs. Discussions focused on how far these services go in facilitating access to affordable finance in the sector.
The workshop brought together representatives from the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry (MTCI), the Ministry of MSMEs, Academia, Bankers Association of Zambia, Women in Mining Association, Small Scale Miners Association, National Technical Committee on the BEV Initiative (Zambia), civil society organizations, Chambers of Commerce and other private and public sector entities in both DRC and Zambia.
The DRC-Zambia BEV Initiative is the practical implementation of the Agreement between the Heads of States of the two countries, entered into during the DRC-Africa Business Forum, organized by the DRC Government in collaboration with the Economic Commission for Africa, Africa Export Import Bank, African Finance Corporation, the African Development Bank and Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa in November 2021, in Kinshasa, DRC, to further collaboration between DRC and Zambia on the battery electric vehicle value chain.
Issued by:
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: eca-info@un.org