Over the past decade, artisanal and small-scale mining in the Eastern part of the DR Congo has undergone an unprecedented technological revolution, with the use of machines such as ball mills, motor pumps and dredges, and new techniques such as cyanidation. In a FWO-EOS funded research, carried out in 2021, a team of CEGEMI researchers has studied different dimensions of this “technological transformation”. Their findings have been gathered in a series of working papers published by IOB, University of Antwerp.

Ancert Mushagalusa Buhendwa, Olivier Igugu and Thierry Munga Mwisha have written on “Taxation des technologies dans l’EMAPE : Contribution à l’économie locale et à la province du Sud-Kivu, RDC”. The owners of machines and new technologies need to pay taxes, which are supposed to contribute to government revenues. This study, however, shows a gap between the de jure and the de facto tax payment explained mainly by the proliferation of “arrangements” between the owners and the state agents and the privatization of tax revenues. The full working paper (in French) can be accessed here.

Also see Kilosho, Mushagalusa and Kamundala’s article published in Conjonctures de l’Afrique centrale 2020 on ‘ Liens fiscaux dans la chaîne d’approvisionnement des 3T au Sud-Kivu » here