Privatization of markets and public services in Kinshasa

Albert Malukisa Nkuku and Kristof Titeca of the University of Antwerp have provided a comprehensive analysis of the background to the privatization of markets and public services in Kinshasa and rise of private “rent seeking” over the past few decades. “The Marché de la Liberté has been repurposed as a vehicle for private rent generation through all these measures. Firstly, the market isn’t governed as a state public entity, but by agents who are financially and politically accountable to political elites. Revenues are collected privately and beyond public scrutiny. Staff aren’t employed by the public administration but come from presidential networks. Taxes are not collected by the mandated public servants but by individuals outside the public administration.”