Communiqué of the National OHADA Commission in the DRC

Does the Anglo-Saxon world support OHADA? The question is sometimes burning on the lips and sowing seeds of doubt in many minds from one year to another. Today, the United Kingdom puts forward legislation that plants certainties and demands admiration, for the legislation of the country of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has just answered yes to this question; and without skimping on resources! As a matter of fact, two technical assistance agreements were signed between the governments of the United Kingdom and the DRC to support the implementation of reforms aiming to improve the business climate including the implementation of the OHADA legislation. These two axes form the ESSOR programme with a duration of five years.

After several months of preliminary work between the service provider responsible for implementing the program, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC, selected following an international call for tenders) and the National OHADA/ RDC Commission (NOC), under the auspices of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights and of the British Cooperation, the official launch of the program took place on September 9, 2015 in the presence of the Minister of Planning, of a senior British official (Director General for Economic Development of the British Cooperation) who travelled to Kinshasa for the occasion, the Ambassador of the United Kingdom to the DRC, the Head of Mission of the British Cooperation in DRC, the NOC, Steering Committee for Improving the Business Climate and Investments (CPCAI) and PwC. The event was widely covered by the media.

The speech of the DFID Director General for Economic Development, Mr David KENNEDY reveals the importance of the means allocated (fifty million dollars).

The program will be implemented as a portfolio of large projects, including the OHADA project, each organized around an axis of the business environment reform. Through the design and implementation of projects focusing on the reform of the business environment institutional framework, facilitating access to financing and to the fight against corruption, the expected impact of the program is the reduction of poverty by increasing the income of the poor.

For the project exclusively dealing with the OHADA legislation, this program focuses mainly on providing the necessary support in order to make Congolese law compliant with the Uniform Acts, to promote education and awareness among target persons (development and distribution of guides, brochures, documents, institutional communication by the NOC, optimization of the NOC website), support for strengthening the functions of NOC (including monitoring and assessment of the relevance and impact of its activities, improvement of “Doing Business” indicators), support for strengthening the One-Stop Business Creation shop and the development of the master plan and the IT policy of the RCCM¹ in accordance with the OHADA standards.

As regards the rest of the programme, the technical assistance focuses on other aspects of the business climate reform, of which a significant part is also included in the process of implementation of the OHADA (legislation) in DRC. Other possible future projects could focus on tax reform, access to financing, anti-corruption, cross-border trade and the reform within the electricity sector.

Executed by PwC and carefully prepared since 2013, the ESSOR programme (probably the most important funding ever allocated for technical assistance related to OHADA and the business climate) covers half of the Congolese national territory and is based on the following principles and criteria: impact, flexibility, durability and sustainability, skills sharing, transparency, public-private dialogue. It also favours gender-inclusion initiatives (women's entrepreneurship, training for women).

The “OHADA” part of the ESSOR programme is considered a priority. Therefore it is the starting point of the programme. As the inception report (page 11) indicates, “given its potential impact on the business climate and on investments, (the OHADA project) has been selected in order to be implemented first”. A steering committee and a technical monitoring committee are being set up to allow the project to reach its cruising speed in the next few weeks.

NOC / DRC

¹RCCM = Trade and Property Credit Register.