(Ecofin agency) – While RCA is trying to reorganize a mining sector long dominated by craft and informality, a new support from the World Bank aims to support reforms by promoting the acceleration of process digitization.
By signing on Monday, May 5, 2025 an additional funding agreement of $ 6.4 million (more than 3 billion FCFA) with the World Bank, the Central African Republic (RCA) has taken a new stage in its quest for modernization in the mining sector. This support, granted via the International Development Association (IDA), aims to strengthen the digital and regulatory governance of a sector where several reforms have been implemented to convince international partners.
With under-exploited mineral resources (diamonds, gold, uranium) and a dominant mining craft, RCA has been looking for years to transform this sector into a growth lever. Faced with the challenges that include informality, trafficking, lack of transparency, and environmental impacts, the Faustin-Archange Touadéra (photo) government adopted a new mining code in 2024 and strengthened the fight against diamonds from conflict zones. These efforts have contributed to the lifting by the Kimberley Process of the export of raw diamonds from the country, in place for 11 years. This dynamic, reinforced by the beginning of industrialization, was hailed by the World Bank.
The pillars of digital transformation
The funding in the form of a donation, granted to the Central African Republic, targets four strategic axes. First, a digital geological information system will be deployed to map resources, with recourse to remote sensing and portable geophysics equipment. The objective is to attract investors by reducing uncertainty to reserves, while making data accessible to the public via a web portal.
In addition, the country plans to implement an electronic mining license issuance system, incorporating a GIS (geographic information system). This will replace manual procedures, and promote transparency.
Funding will also allow, we learn, to strengthen the capacities of the Ministry of Mines and Geology, the Secretariat of the Kimberley process and the Secretariat of the Initiative for Transparency in the Extractive Industries (ITIA), essential links to certify the “clean” origin of Central African diamonds and restore the confidence of buyers.
A strategic assessment of environmental and social risks will be carried out, with the aim of developing standards aligned on international standards, in order to facilitate access to foreign markets, more and more demanding on these criteria.
Beyond diamonds
For the RCA, of which the mining sector represented 46.4% of exports in 2022 against 33.01% in 2021, according to the latest countries of the EITI, this agreement is a bet on the future. While the diamond represents one of the main resources exploited – 115,607.43 carats exported in 2022 for a value of 8.9 billion FCFA against 103,648 carats for 6.3 billion FCFA in 2021 – digitization should diversify mining centers of interest, reduce transaction costs, attract serious investors and increase tax revenue. Especially since the diamond sector has been in crisis for several months with a fall in the prices of natural diamonds. Like the reported Agency Ecofin In a previous article, a drop of approximately 50 % of the prices of raw diamonds and 35 % for polished stones was observed between 2022 and 2024, a situation which impacts the savings of main African producers of which the Central African Republic is a part.
In a country report published in 2023, the African Development Bank (BAD) indicated that “The mining potential of the Central African Republic is characterized by the presence of more than thirty-four (34) mineral substances spread over 470 indices”. We find in particular the fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal and coal) and minerals (bauxite, copper, gold, iron ore, lead, uranium, nickel, phosphate, silver, tin and zinc).
But beyond digitizing the governance of the mining sector to guarantee its effectiveness, the success of this transformation will also depend on the training of local actors and institutional stability. Without reliable electricity and with low internet coverage outside Bangui, scanning remains a challenge. In addition, coordination between ministries (mines, environment, digital) must be optimal to avoid pitfalls.
Muriel Edjo
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