Business · Central Africa
DR Congo tables a record $24.8bn budget for 2027, with $6.1bn for security as the war in the east continues
Prime Minister Judith Suminwa told MPs that the 2027 finance bill is up about 12% on this year’s revised budget. She is counting on current revenue of $17.5bn and an assumed exchange rate of 2,300 francs to the dollar.
DAKAR — The Democratic Republic of Congo’s government has asked parliament to approve the largest budget in the country’s history. Prime Minister Judith Suminwa presented a 2027 finance bill of CDF 56,930bn, about $24.8bn, to the National Assembly in Kinshasa on Thursday, with security spending at the top of her priorities.
“This bill contains a budget presented in balance, in revenue and expenditure, at 56,930 billion Congolese francs, or about 24.8 billion US dollars, an increase of nearly 12% on the revised budget for 2026,” Suminwa told MPs, the state Agence Congolaise de Presse reported (AB24 translation). The bill was tabled on 15 September, according to Instant News RDC, which said the Prime Minister’s office described it as triple the forecasts at the start of President Félix Tshisekedi’s first term. The published finance bill puts the total at CDF 56,929.9bn, 11.9% above the revised 2026 law of CDF 50,866.3bn, and sets out the same growth, inflation and exchange-rate assumptions.
Security first
The government has set aside CDF 14,091bn, about $6.1bn, for the second pillar of its 2024–2028 programme, which covers defence, internal security, community stabilisation, justice and diplomacy. “The unity and sovereignty of the DRC can be subject to no compromise,” Suminwa said, according to ACP, repeating the government’s determination to end what it calls the occupation of part of the national territory. The money is meant for training, equipment and logistics for the armed forces and police and for better pay and conditions for their personnel.
Exceptional spending financed from the DRC’s own resources also covers a provision for elections, a population census and identification programme, and a national dialogue that is to begin with citizen consultations in all 26 provinces, Instant News RDC reported. Basic social services get CDF 14,151bn. That includes extending free basic education to the 7th and 8th years from the 2027–28 school year, and free childbirth and maternal care.
The revenue bet
The budget depends on raising revenue. Current revenue is projected at CDF 40,211bn, about $17.5bn, against $9.8bn at the start of Tshisekedi’s first term, according to ACP. Domestic revenue is put at CDF 41,786bn, 82% of total resources, and external revenue at CDF 9,456bn, about $4.1bn. The government plans to widen the tax base, tackle fraud and roll out standardised invoices to collect VAT.
Suminwa also reported on the first half of 2026. Revenue of CDF 22,476bn exceeded spending of CDF 20,746bn, but she said the domestic balance remained in deficit once grants and Treasury securities were stripped out, Instant News RDC reported. Execution was uneven: spending on goods and services ran at 186% of its half-year forecast and investment at 108%, while exceptional spending reached only 15.8%.
AB24’s reading: the headline is $24.8bn, but the figure to watch is the 2,300-franc exchange-rate assumption, along with whether revenue really reaches $17.5bn while war continues in the east and the country fights an Ebola outbreak. MPs will now examine the bill under Article 126 of the constitution.
Sources: Agence Congolaise de Presse, 29 Oct 2026; Instant News RDC, 29 Oct 2026; Radio Okapi, 29 Oct 2026; DRC Ministry of Budget, projet de loi de finances 2027. Dollar equivalents as given by the government.
— AB24 · Dakar