The economic potential of hydropower in Africa: Lessons from the Grand Inga Dam

The “Grand Inga” project is undoubtedly Africa’s greatest untapped economic engine. It constitutes the single largest opportunity to end energy poverty on our continent and power a new era of inclusive growth. The possibility of generating over 40,000 megawatts¹ of clean, reliable, and affordable hydropower through a single site on the Congo River, just about 150km from the Atlantic Ocean, has created a myth around the name since the 1950s. Yet this is not a dream; it is a resource that the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the continent already possess.

The common idea that Inga is an elusive dream and nothing has happened since the 50’s cannot be further from reality. “Grand Inga” is being implemented in phases, and the full potential will be met when all eight power stations (Inga 1-8) are constructed. It often escapes public attention that the government of the DRC (then-Zaire) built and commissioned Inga 1 (351MGW) in 1972 and Inga 2 (1424MGW) in 1982.² It is the energy from these dams that today supplies most of the electricity to people and firms in the DRC.³ Hydroelectricity from Inga 2 also drives economic growth: Despite the war in North and South Kivu,⁴ the country has one of the fastestgrowing economies in the world, with an average GDP growth of around 6% for the last 5 years.⁵ Additionally, without Inga 1 and 2, the DRC would not be the world’s top exporter of cobalt, and among the world’s leading producers of other critical minerals.⁶

A new approach to Inga

The next obvious step in the Inga 8-act play is Inga 3. While there have been several failed attempts to build Inga 3 since 1982,⁷ the stars are aligning for it to happen now. First, the global energy transition is boosting demand for critical minerals. Cust and Zeufack suggest that, by 2050, the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy may create demand for 3 billion tons of minerals and metals that are needed to deploy solar, wind, and geothermal energy.⁸ Second, the imperative of job creation in developing countries has led to increased calls and legislation requiring valueaddition to minerals in Africa before export.⁹ The resulting combination of booming production and downstream transformation will generate a massive increase in the demand for clean energy. Achieving success in Inga 3 and the subsequent phases is therefore an absolute necessity for the DRC and Africa’s industrialization and job creation; for the viability of the Lobito Corridor, whose cargo will depend on access to base-load electricity; and for the global energy transition. Moreover, electricity from Inga 3 has potential to reduce the demand for charcoal, thereby releasing significant pressure on the Congo Basin’s forests.¹⁰

Change in political leadership in the DRC in 2018 also brought on a paradigm shift regarding Inga. The long-held view of Inga as a hydro-project for export, or as a natural resource to be sold to potential developers, has evolved into a narrative of Inga as a platform for economic transformation and job creation.¹¹ Inga is no longer seen merely as a dam or an infrastructure project, but as a development program on a spatial corridor that spans from the port of Banana on the Atlantic Ocean to Kolwezi through Kinshasa. This new view presents significant opportunities for private investment in roads, rail, cement, urbanization, manufacturing, mining, and data centers, which will create demand for electricity and contribute to economic diversification and job creation. Most importantly, by providing population beneficiation through skills provision and tackling environmental and social safeguards up front, Inga will prepare the DRC’s youth for jobs in construction, hydroelectricity, manufacturing, and local development programs. The Inga 3 Development Program is preparing the country for Inga 3—while preparing the Inga project for the country.¹²

In parallel, sectoral reforms (under implementation as part of the energy sector compact to realize Mission 300¹³) and budget support programs aim to improve the financial viability and corporate governance of Société Nationale d’Electricité, the national utility company. It is this new vision that the World Bank embraced when its board approved a $1 billion in financing for Inga 3 in June.¹⁴

The novel approach to Inga, which I have had the honor and privilege to lead in the past three years from the World Bank side, is innovative and powerful. The World Bank’s own experience in Dasu, Pakistan, and Naem Tung, Lao PDR shows that with proper integration of infrastructure, urbanization, and human capital investments, large-scale hydropower projects can power industries, create jobs, and drive inclusive growth by boosting the incomes of the population. Without a people-first approach, research suggests that large dams are only marginally cost-effective and can impose significant distributional costs—benefiting downstream regions while harming upstream communities.¹⁵

A people-first approach to Inga’s future

Starting in 2026, the population of the province of Kongo Central will begin feeling the benefits of the Inga development program even before construction work on the dam itself commences. The local development program will build schools, train teachers, and create the Inga Academy, while leveraging vocational centers for construction and maintenance jobs, equipping every young person within 50 kilometers of the Inga site with a skill needed for construction, operation, and maintenance of this large-scale infrastructure by 2030. We have held multiple town halls with customary chiefs, women’s groups, and youth councils in the Inga area: What they want is development, not handouts. They want jobs and the basic amenities we all enjoy and take for granted: electricity, water, education, and health care.

Inga 3 is no longer a pipe dream: I expect it to be completed in the next 10 years and deliver between 2,000 and 11,000 megawatts for an approximate cost between $10 and 30 billion. The government of the DRC has drafted an Inga Law that sets the conditions for a Public-Private Partnership and creates the right environment for private capital mobilization.¹⁶ Work will continue on environmental and social safeguard studies, finalizing dam safety designs, and securing demand and power purchase agreements. In parallel, the World Bank is investing in a robust regional transmission backbone—high-voltage lines that will connect the southern, eastern, and central African power pools.

Over the next decade, I envision millions of jobs being created in the DRC along the Inga growth corridor. I see data centers powered by Inga’s flow, cooled by the same river, connected by fiber—meeting global AI demand with African ingenuity. I imagine electricity from Inga 3 and subsequent phases of its development powering the boom in production, processing, and local transformation of critical minerals into higher-value products. I envision clean and affordable electricity from Inga replacing charcoal as a cooking fuel in Kinshasa, thereby saving millions of hectares of the Congo-Basin Forest that are cleared every year for firewood. I see Inga powering a new wave of African exports, including through the Lobito Corridor, which complements Inga by providing a modern logistical backbone for exports, linking energy and transport infrastructure into a unified platform for diversification and regional industrialization. This is how we convert natural capital into human capital and anchor prosperity within our borders. 

Africa’s untapped hydropower potential exceeds 1,100 gigawatts. We currently use just 11%. This gap is not a statistic; it is a moral failure. I have studied resource-rich nations across the globe; those that succeed do not squander either the resources or the rents they generate—they invest. Grand Inga is our life’s work because it is Africa’s destiny. We do not need permission to harness it. We need ambition, courage, and the determination to invest in it transparently. In 2026, let us start investing in Inga, building not just a dam, but a future for Africa.