Zambia, three others to sign EV battery precursor Special Economic Zones agreement

Zambia and three other parties are set to sign a Framework Agreement relating to the creation of Special Economic Zones (SEC) dedicated to the production of precursors for batteries and electric vehicles today in Kinshasa.

The other parties include the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and African Export–Import Bank (Afreximbank).

This signature will be followed by the launch of a pre-feasibility study which will aim to design an implementation plan and an operational model for the creation and operation of the cross-border SEZ., says DRC Minister of Industry, Julien Paluku Kahongya.

Kahongya said the study would also aim to identify the main challenges to be met in order to facilitate the creation and operation of the cross-border SEZ.

The study will also make it possible to develop a financing plan and fundraising strategies, but also to design a strategy to promote investments dedicated to the SEZ.

“The electric battery market is a big market, if we manage to capture only 10 percent of this market and inject into the Congolese economy, it will be a boom. When you look at the GDP of all of Africa it is less than 2 trillion or at most 2 trillion.

This, he said in a statement issued on Sunday was less than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Japan which was 4 trillion.

He said Japan has a GDP higher than all the African countries, which was unacceptable.

“It is projects like this that will help Africa if we create an African value chain that takes all the producing countries of these components that go into manufacturing.

“The DRC is engaged in a long campaign to mobilize partners and will thus inaugurate the process of implementing the ambitious Batteries and Electric Vehicles (BVE) value chain project. As a reminder, for the 2023-2024 financial year, the country intends to install the first manufacturing plant for electric battery precursors,” Kahongya said.