DRC: Call for an increase in the national culture budget

Kinshasa, July  30^th, (CPA).– A call for an increase in the annual culture budget in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was launched on Wednesday by a Congolese expert in order to strengthen the sector in the face of socio-economic challenges and to boost local creative cultural industries for the benefit of art stakeholders and consumers. « The national budget allocated to the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage in DRC is very insignificant. This budget is absolutely insufficient to develop the creative cultural industries or to effectively fulfil the mission of this sovereign ministry, which is to protect cultural heritage and, above all, to promote artists and their creations in the socio-economic market, » has said Didi Kembwarss, cultural affairs expert. ‘It is necessary to ask the President of the Republic to increase it next year. This time, the budget of the Ministry of Culture must be increased in order to initiate actions that will allow all Congolese people to have access to it,’ he has added. According to the latest indicators revealed in the 2024 Finance Act, social protection has increased by more than 2%. Meanwhile, the environment, housing, culture, sport and leisure have each received less than 1% of the budget. « Culture has always been the poor relation of the state budget. The legislative and executive powers must consider this in order to breathe life into this sector, which, economically speaking, can greatly regenerate the public treasury.  Socially speaking, the transformation and respect of a people depends on the promotion of its culture. (…) In the current context, the Ministry in charge of Culture must be considered a priority institution in order to play this role, » he revealed. He continued: ‘One might ask whether, in the context of the war of aggression that the country is undergoing, it is wise to ask for an increase in the culture budget. I would say yes, because culture represents and is part of the economic and social challenges of today’s world.’ Based in Paris, Didi Kembwarss referred to France’s experience, which has not only made culture an important lever for its economic development but also a vehicle for the transmission of knowledge in human life. « Forty-four years ago, the French Minister of Culture, Mr Jack Lang, declared: ‘The division into social classes is manifested on a cultural level. Why should the pleasures of the mind be the exclusive preserve of those privileged with knowledge and leisure? Today, in 2025, I would repeat this statement, replacing the French with the Congolese, » he has concluded. In 2025, the DRC’s budget has increased from nearly 41 trillion Congolese francs to nearly 50 trillion Congolese francs. This budget allocates more than 48% of resources to investment and nearly 52% to the functioning of the state apparatus.