Kinshasa, August 4th, 2025 (CPA).- A financial grant has been requested to complete work on a buoy tender belonging to the Maritime ways Authority (RVM) docked at the Kongolo shipyard in Tanganyika (south-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo) was requested on Monday in Kinshasa from the Congolese government by an engineer in charge of the work, during an interview with the CPA ‘I have been in Kinshasa since September last year waiting for funding to enable us to purchase the equipment needed to complete the finishing work on the buoy tender docked at the Kongolo shipyard,’ has declared Pierre Madima Nsakala, civil engineer and supervisor of the technical department of the Maritime ways Authority (RVM) responsible for carrying out the work. ‘As soon as we have the funds, we will purchase the equipment locally, which will then be transported to Kongolo, before considering the relocation of the team assigned to the finishing work,’ he has added.
He has underlined that, after a long period of waiting, the management team has decided to halt all work and recall all members of the technical team assigned to the finishing work to the capital. ‘Before the team can return to Kongolo to complete the finishing works, all the necessary equipment must be purchased and transported to its destination by air,’ he has insisted. These finishing works, which are 80% complete and have an estimated total cost of USD 300,000 (three hundred thousand US dollars), will be completed three months after the lightship is launched. They consist of installing the crane before the lightship is launched, laying the piping and connecting the engines to the gas oil circuit. The commissioning of this buoy tender will improve navigability on the Lualaba River between the Kindu-Ubundu-Bukama sections by installing buoys and constructing shore signals in order to significantly reduce the recurring shipwrecks recorded in recent months.