DR Congo - American Strategic Partnership Moves Forward on World's Largest Hydropower Complex

Less than a year after signing, the partnership has new American investment and a joint committee advancing Grand Inga 

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Less than a year after it was signed, the United States - Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Strategic Partnership Agreement is moving from concepts on paper to committed projects on the ground. The latest step came in Paris, where the two governments launched joint governance of Grand Inga, the Congo River hydropower complex that would be the largest in the world. 

Signed in Washington back on December 4, 2025, the agreement covers investment, critical minerals, infrastructure and energy. Its Joint Steering Committee formally began implementation in February. In April, KoBold Metals, one of the largest American investors in the DRC, launched a $50 million lithium exploration program. In August, the DRC signed a 30-year, $1.26 billion concession to rebuild the 1,000-kilometer DR Congo link of the Lobito Corridor railway.

Grand Inga is where the partnership turns minerals into megawatts. The inaugural Grand Inga Coordination and Governance Committee met at the World Bank offices in Paris. It was co-chaired by Daniel Mukoko Samba, Deputy Prime Minister, and Jeremy Wiggins of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The delegations focused on developing Grand Inga in coordinated phases.

"For decades, Inga was a promise. In Paris, we started running it as a project, and that is what this entire partnership is about," said Deputy Prime Minister Daniel Mukoko Samba. "Congo does not intend to remain a place where minerals are dug up and shipped out. We intend to process them here, with Congolese workers and Congolese power, and Grand Inga is how we get there."

Only about one in five Congolese has access to electricity, according to the World Bank, and without reliable power much of the copper and cobalt mined in the DRC leaves the country unprocessed. The Inga site holds an estimated 42,000 megawatts of potential power on a scale that could drive manufacturing, mineral processing, housing and additional infrastructure. That is nearly double the 22,500 megawatts installed at China's Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest operating power station. Inga 1 and Inga 2, about 1,800 megawatts combined, are in operation today.

"Americans hear a great deal about Congo's minerals. They should hear just as much about Congo's power," said Ambassador Yvette Kapinga Ngandu, Ambassador of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the United States. "This partnership was never only about what comes out of the ground. A railroad, new American investment and now the Grand Inga hydropower complex show what it can build for American supply chains and for the Congolese families who still live without electricity."

During Inga's first phase, the project is expected to create 4,000 to 6,000 jobs, and projections estimate up to 8 million jobs as it develops. The project is a cornerstone of the DRC's goal to bring electricity to 62 percent of the population, about 82 million people, by 2030. The Grand Inga committee also placed environmental and social safeguards for affected communities on its agenda.

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SOURCE The Democratic Republic of Congo