The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) plans to establish an uninterrupted road corridor connecting Banana and Kasumbalesa by the end of 2027.
“Approximately 600 kilometres still require work along the roughly 3,300-kilometre corridor connecting Banana in Kongo-Central with Kasumbalesa in Haut-Katanga,” Xtrafrica quoted the DRC’s Infrastructure and Public Works Minister John Banza as saying on September 3.
The construction of the RN1 corridor linking the Atlantic coast to southeastern DRC is continuing on the Tshikapa–Kananga and Kananga–Mbuji-Mayi sections.
The minister described the Mbuji-Mayi–Nguba section as one of the most important remaining parts of the wider corridor, saying that Banza said this section could be delivered by the end of 2027 if work proceeds as planned.
Motorists can currently travel from Banana to Tshikapa, while work continues farther east. The connection would make it possible for vehicles to travel continuously between western and southeastern DRC, according to the minister.
The route is strategically important because it ties together population centers, agricultural zones and mining areas while feeding the deep‑water Port of Banana under development on the coast. A continuous Banana–Kasumbalesa artery would cut transport costs and delays, support domestic trade and strengthen logistics for mineral exports from Haut‑Katanga.
At the other end of the corridor, Kinshasa is preparing to break ground in January 2027 on a $600 million dry port at Kasumbalesa, the main commercial crossing with Zambia on the Copperbelt. The 60‑hectare facility, developed under a 23‑year build‑operate‑transfer concession with South Africa’s Yellowstone Consortium, is designed to handle more than 1,250 trucks and process up to 11 million tons of freight a year.
The project is designed to boost logistics capacity at Kasumbalesa, a key gateway for the DRC’s trade with southern Africa. More than 60% of the country’s freight moves through this corridor, covering commerce with SADC and COMESA members as well as East African markets.
The DRC’s Vice‑Prime Minister and Transport Minister Jean‑Pierre Bemba has overseen technical reviews to finalise the project’s financial and operational framework, with Standard Bank and Afreximbank linked to the financing.
Project estimates point to around 2,500 construction jobs and 800 permanent posts, plus potential annual savings of about $50 million from reduced demurrage and $12–15 million in public revenues. Planners also expect centralized, digitized border procedures to shrink processing times from days to a few hours for some shipments.
To support these physical upgrades, the Office de Gestion du Fret Multimodal (OGEFREM) launched the SYGREM digital platform on September 1 to manage multimodal freight charges and key trade documents online. The system covers the Electronic Import Information Form (FERI), Electronic Export Information Form (FERE) and Destination Certificate (AD), alongside cargo geolocation, multi‑channel payments and centralized transaction processing.
OGEFREM Director General Olivier Tshibola Mukuma said that SYGREM is intended to improve revenue collection, curb fraud and give authorities clearer visibility over cargo movements across DRC’s trade corridors.
Funds collected through the platform will be centralized in dedicated OGEFREM accounts, creating an auditable trail from declaration to payment. For importers, exporters and freight forwarders, the reform promises less paperwork, faster administrative steps and easier shipment tracking.
Taken together, the RN1 road program, the Kasumbalesa dry port and SYGREM form a single logistics strategy: improve physical connectivity, concentrate freight handling at a modern border hub and digitize the paperwork and payments that move with every container. If delivery timelines hold, the DRC could see a materially different freight landscape by 2027, with faster coast‑to‑Copperbelt transit and tighter state control over trade revenues.
