The Agency for the Promotion and Development of the Grand Inga Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (ADPI-RDC) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Nigeria’s Natural Oilfield Services Limited (NOFSL) for a series of major projects including the Grand Inga hydropower megaproject on the Congo River.

In addition to the dam, the agreement covers the construction of a port terminal, an alumina refinery and aluminium foundry in the DRC.

Under the MoU inked in early May, NOFSL will undertake technical, environmental, social and financial studies for the construction of the 7GW phase three of the 43.2GW Grand Inga scheme.

The Grand Inga megaproject envisages the construction of a series of hydropower plants and dams connected to the Inga Falls, one of the largest waterfalls in the world. The power generated will be supplied to the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) as well as the domestic market.

The first two phases of the Grand Inga project have an installed capacity of 1.8GW, with the 351MW Inga 1 facility commissioned in 1972 and the 1.4GW Inga 2 in 1982.

The government has decided the Inga 3 phase should be developed as a public-private partnership (PPP) using a build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract model.

Five additional hydropower plants are intended to be built under the megaproject, which is a priority scheme in the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

The project has been on the table for several decades, and most recently Austrialian mining group Fortescue was linked with its development.

The MoU signed with NOFSL also covers the construction of an aluminium foundry with a capacity of 4 million tonnes a year (t/y). The project is to be executed in eight phases of 500,000 t/y each.

NOFSL has also agreed to build an alumina refinery with a capacity of 8 million t/y, as well as a port terminal to facilitate the import of equipment and raw materials.

The implementation of the four projects is expected to create about 50,000 direct and indirect jobs for the Congolese population.