Africa’s long-delayed Inga 3 hydropower project is showing renewed signs of progress, with the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa resuming pivotal negotiations and international financing beginning to flow toward what is billed as one of the continent’s most transformative energy schemes. The initial phase of the project, valued at more than US$10 billion, targets an installed capacity of up to 11,000 megawatts, with the wider Grand Inga vision on the Congo River ultimately envisioning as much as 70,000 megawatts once fully developed.
Talks between the two countries resumed as the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa moved to revive discussions on the long-delayed dam project, with Congo’s government confirming discussions would restart in April, and South Africa’s electricity minister, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, travelling to Kinshasa to review existing energy agreements tied to the project. Central to these discussions is South Africa’s role as the project’s primary buyer, with current negotiations aimed at increasing the country’s purchase agreement from 2,500 megawatts to 5,000 megawatts, building on an existing political agreement for Congo to export 2.5 gigawatts to South Africa.
Financing has also begun taking shape, with the World Bank’s International Development Association providing the largest funding share so far, committing $1 billion over ten years, while the African Development Bank continues to offer transaction support and feasibility funding. This builds on the World Bank’s earlier approval of a $250 million credit as the first tranche of a wider $1 billion Inga 3 Development Program, intended to lay institutional and community foundations ahead of full-scale construction. Officials overseeing the programme have described it as a chance to accelerate energy sector reform in the DRC and support the country’s National Energy Compact, which aims to lift national electricity access from roughly one-fifth of the population to 62 percent by 2030.
Once operational, Inga 3 could ultimately produce between 4,800 and 11,000 megawatts of electricity, though final project specifications remain under study. The project forms part of the broader Grand Inga scheme on the Congo River near the Inga Falls in Kongo-Central province, a site whose hydropower potential has long been described as among the largest in the world, alongside only China and Russia’s leading river systems.
Despite this renewed momentum, Inga 3 has a long and complicated history, having first entered serious planning discussions more than two decades ago under a regional utility consortium involving Angola, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and the DRC. Financing setbacks, shifting developer interest and governance concerns have repeatedly delayed the project in the past. With institutional funding now committed, bilateral negotiations under way, and a phased development programme in motion, stakeholders across the region will be watching closely to see whether this latest push finally translates into construction on what remains one of Africa’s most ambitious, and most delayed, infrastructure undertakings.