Kinshasa, June 8th, 2025(CPA) – Transport is an important factor in a country’s economic stability and social development, an economic consultant and researcher told CPA on Saturday in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
‘Transport is an important factor in the stability of the economy and the social development of a country. It is captured in a general way, or the different particularities are positioned in terms of routes, for example sea routes, land routes, air routes’, said Triple Ngampulu, a researcher and consultant in economic matters. According to the source, remedying the inefficiency of transport is becoming a necessity for social and economic development in the DRC. Mr Ngampulu argued that transport not only facilitates the movement of people and their goods, but also overcomes the distances that can make economic and social activities difficult. For this consultant, all communication routes are important insofar as for stability, growth and the economy to be able to function, the centers of growth need to be connected. The problem of being able to link the growth centers takes into account all the transport and communications routes. According to this researcher, inefficiency in the transport sector is one of the major factors contributing to economic instability, but also to food insecurity. ‘The new World Bank report reveals the scale of food losses due to inefficient transport in Africa, where 37% of locally produced food is lost en route due to poor road and other infrastructure’, he points out. ‘Transport is an essential factor in a country’s development, and should not be considered in a micro way, i.e. using it only to get to work, to school or even to hospital, but should be considered in a macro way, including the transport of goods, from producers to consumers, from one town to another, from one country to another’, said Mr Triple Ngampulu. To meet these challenges, he proposed investing in transport infrastructure, modernizing ports and extending road networks, which will create new jobs. ‘In Kinshasa, we are already finding it difficult to consume even products from Central Kongo, simply because of the poor state of the roads, which prevents the smooth movement of people and goods’, he added. In his view, producing more is not the only solution to the problems of market prices and hunger in the DRC, but rather to repair the faulty systems that prevent products from getting to where they are most needed, by investing in and improving transport. Transport has an effect (positive and negative) on economic growth and social development.