EP 3: The DRC Has the Cobalt, Why Isn't It Building the Batteries Yet?
The DRC has the minerals to create batteries, yet activities further downstream continue to lag. What skills are required to create and sustain a value chain?
The DRC has the minerals to create batteries, yet activities further downstream continue to lag. What skills are required to create and sustain a value chain?
Across Africa, countries hold the minerals that underpin modern industry. But turning these into higher value products depends on something less visible: the technical expertise, training systems, and institutional linkages that turn raw materials into complex products.
In this episode of The Africa Hour, we explore the topic of skills through one of the most demanding manufacturing processes today: batteries. From chemistry and engineering to software and quality control, battery production requires a tightly coordinated system of capabilities.
Using the Democratic Republic of Congo as a central case, we examine what it would take to build those capabilities locally, and where the current gaps lie.
We also look outward, to China, where skills systems have been built deliberately over time, linking education, training, and industry at scale.
Geruad Neema is a China-Africa relations expert, focusing on natural resources governance and the impact of great power competition on African countries. He is also the Africa editor for the China-Global South Project. He has led research on China’s copper and cobalt supply chains in the DRC and also advised government agencies and think tanks on China-Africa mining relations.
Prof. Kaniki Tumba is an academic at the School of Chemical and Minerals Engineering, North-West University, and an Associate Editor for the South African Journal of Chemical Engineering. He is lead at the South African Circular Minerals and Metals Initiative, and a Research Director at the African Center of Excellence for Advanced Battery Research. His research focuses on chemical engineering thermodynamics, mineral processing, and renewable energy storage.
Prof. Hercule Kalele is the Head of the Department of Petrochemistry and Refining at the University of Kinshasa and the Technical Director at the Congolese Battery Council. In his current role, he oversees the implementation of the battery and electric vehicle value chain within the DRC. A Professor of Chemistry and Electrochemistry, he holds a doctorate in Chemistry and Materials Physics with a specialisation in active materials for batteries and electric supercapacitors.
A Battery Industry in the Central African Copperbelt? Regional and Geopolitical Dimensions by Patience Mususa and Michel S. Lutandula for APRI
Africa's Development Dynamics 2024 by OECD
Blue Metal Blues: Cobalt, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and China by SAIIA
How can Africa make the most of its transition minerals? by Just Minerals Africa
Identification of Skills Gaps in South Africa by the Department of Higher Education and Training (South Africa)
Incentives for SMEs to Invest in Skills: Lessons From European Good Practices by OECD
Learning Outcomes of African Engineering Students in a Chinese Context: A Qualitative Study by Jiabin Zhu
On China, Minerals, and Power Competition by Christian G.N. Byamungu for CSIS
