USAID and Equity BCDC partner to unlock $5 million in loans to small-scale artisanal miners in eastern DRC

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Equity BCDC have partnered to unlock financial services and products for small-scale artisanal miners in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) through the Zahabu Safi Project (Clean Gold) from USAID.

As one of the largest banks in the DRC, Equity BCDC will invest USD 500,000 of its own funds combined with USD 200,000 grant from USAID’s Zahabu Safi (Clean Gold) project to create a blended finance solution authorized to reduce the mining risk of lending to the artisanal mining sector. This partnership will accelerate the bank’s deployment of financiers in a new market segment, as well as catalyze lending in a largely informal sector.

The partnership was officially launched during the mining week of the Democratic Republic of Congo in Lubumbashi.

“Lack of access to credit is one of the main challenges to responsible or artisanal sourcing in DR Congo,” said USAID Mission Director Paul Sabatine. “Through this partnership, we are tackling a systemic problem with a local market-based solution.”

Equity BCDC will be able to better understand the actors, operations, local dynamics and commercial links from the extraction to the sale of artisanal gold. The bank will also draw on the network of artisanal mining cooperatives, traders, and exporters developed by USAID’s Zahabu Safi (Clean Gold) project, and will benefit from market intelligence and mine site risk profiles. that the project has developed.

With grant funds and technical assistance from USAID’s Zahabu Safi (Clean Gold) Project, Equity will benefit from external expertise to refine its financial product offering to meet the unique needs of the mining sector. artisanal mining. Equity is offering up to US$5 million in loans and other financial products over the next 18 months. In addition, the bank will deploy agents to targeted artisanal mining areas to facilitate access to banking services and financial products.

According to Célestin Mukeba, CEO of EquityBCDC, “Equity believes in creating triple value (social/human value, environmental/planet value and economic/profit value). This partnership is perfectly in line with the bank’s vision, which is to champion the socio-economic prosperity of the people of Africa.

Nikki Duncan, Chief of Party for Zahabu Safi at USAID, further points out that “artisanal mining cooperatives, traders and exporters often do not have access to working capital to pre-finance purchases of legal gold. They also lack fixed asset financing to invest in the purchase or rental of excavation or personal protective equipment, which are critical to improving production and keeping miners safe.Through this partnership, we hope to have a positive impact on the artisanal mining sector well beyond the life cycle of our project.

About the Zahabu Safi project

The USAID Zahabu Safi (Clean Gold) Project is an inclusive economic development initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The objective of the project is to set up supply chains of small-scale artisanal mining issues from the eastern DRC. Launched in 2018, this five-year program builds on recent successes achieved by donor-funded initiatives to export responsibly produced gold to jewelry buyers in North America and Europe. Implemented by Global Communities in partnership with Levin Sources.