• DR Congo launches FOREC, activating long-dormant economic regulation fund
• Fund to monitor markets, stabilise prices, protect household purchasing power
• Relaunch follows years of planning, new decree approved April 2025

DR Congo’s Minister of National Economy, Daniel Mukoko Samba, announced on Friday, January 9, 2026, the launch of the Economic Regulation Fund (FOREC), bringing into operation a body created by decree in May 2008 but never implemented.

The fund is intended to play a central role in market monitoring, price stabilisation and the protection of household purchasing power, particularly for strategic products such as maize, the ministry said. Executive Secretary Jean-Paul Nemoyato said the relaunch marks a shift from a purely legal framework to concrete action on the ground, based on market-monitoring systems and intervention tools. In a statement posted on the Ministry of National Economy’s Facebook page, the move was described as a decisive step toward strengthening economic regulation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

How FOREC is expected to manage prices and shortages

FOREC is tasked with identifying products at risk of shortages or sharp price distortions and recommending intervention mechanisms to prevent market tensions from escalating into crises for households and businesses. The fund aims to ensure the availability of essential goods at prices affordable for consumers, in line with the government’s supply and distribution strategy.

Its approach is based on anticipation rather than reaction. Priority monitoring will focus on products that account for the largest share of household spending.

Designed as a preventive economic tool, FOREC does not replace market mechanisms but allows the state to intervene when supply and demand imbalances threaten social stability.

A long-prepared launch

The activation of the fund follows a process initiated in July 2023, when Vice Prime Minister in charge of National Economy Vital Kamerhe convened experts from relevant ministries to assess the practical conditions for its rollout. Following those consultations, the government decided to establish two bodies: a management committee responsible for steering the fund, and a technical unit in charge of market surveillance and implementing decisions.

An action plan was drawn up at a workshop held in Kinshasa in late October 2023, forming the basis of the roadmap to make the fund operational.

Two years later, a new decree amended and supplemented the original May 7, 2008 decree (No. 08/10), clarifying the fund’s organisation, operating procedures and governance. The revised text was adopted at a Council of Ministers meeting on April 4, 2025, chaired by President Félix Tshisekedi.

With the January 2026 launch, FOREC moves beyond its legal phase. For distributors, importers and local producers, it becomes a public actor capable of influencing supply, stock levels and distribution channels. For households, the key issue is limiting price shocks on goods that shape daily spending.

Chamberline Moko