A decree redefining two-wheel mobility in the Republic of Congo
Published in the Official Gazette on 9 July 2024 and co-signed by four cabinet members, Decree N° 2024-324 codifies what had long been informally practised: only Congolese citizens may operate motorcycle-taxis for passenger transport. Article 9 formulates the principle with lawyerly precision while the remaining provisions delineate licence categories, safety gear obligations and geographic zones of operation. The text emerged after several months of consultation between the Ministry of Transport, municipal authorities and syndicates eager to move from a legal grey zone to a regulated marketplace. By June 2025 the principal trade union representing riders had started to enforce the nationality clause inside its own structures, asking foreign board members to vacate their seats in what it characterised as a “simple execution of state policy”.
Domestic employment at the core of a nationality clause
Official unemployment among Congolese aged 18 to 35 hovers around 21 percent, according to the National Institute of Statistics. The motorcycle-taxi segment, once prohibited in downtown areas, has become an indispensable employer, absorbing what the International Labour Organization classifies as “urban informal labour surplus” (ILO, 2022). Government advisers underline that protecting access to this revenue stream is a social-cohesion instrument rather than a gesture of economic nationalism. In conversation, a senior official at the Ministry of Labour underscored that “each regulatory move must be read against the backdrop of youth livelihood strategies”. Private economists, however, note that foreign riders—mainly from West Africa—often reinvest earnings locally, leasing rooms, buying fuel and servicing bikes, thereby adding modest multiplier effects. The decree therefore amounts to a policy trade-off that favours visible employment gains for nationals over diffuse benefits of migrant participation.
Public safety imperatives foregrounded by accident data
The safety rationale sits prominently within the explanatory memorandum accompanying the decree. Of 12 564 road accidents recorded nationwide in 2023, 3 708 involved motorcycles, representing 29.5 percent of total incidents (Ministry of Transport, 2024). The Ministry’s traffic directorate insists that formalising licensing and insurance will reduce both fatality rates and pressure on public hospitals. Riders must now carry reflective jackets, crash helmets conforming to ECE 22-05 standards, and a national professional card embedded with biometric data. Allowing only nationals to hold these cards, authorities argue, improves traceability and simplifies enforcement. Public-health experts from the World Health Organization, while applauding the attention to safety gear, caution that compliance monitoring will be decisive, citing regional evidence that legislation without roadside checks fails to curb accident curves (WHO Road Safety Report, 2023).
Regional precedents and the CEMAC mobility protocol
Free movement among countries of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa, endorsed in principle since 2013, remains partial in practice. Cameroon and Gabon have occasionally imposed moratoria on foreign moto-taxi operators, citing congestion and safety. Brazzaville’s step is therefore not an outlier, yet it raises questions about the balance between domestic regulation and regional integration. A CEMAC Secretariat note circulated in March 2025 stresses that member states may adopt sector-specific restrictions when public safety is at stake, provided they communicate the measures in advance. Diplomatic sources in Libreville describe the Congolese decree as “legally consistent, politically understandable and diplomatically manageable”. No formal protest has been filed by neighbouring governments to date, even if private conversations reveal concerns over precedent.
Economic ripple effects on imports and informal finance chains
Nearly 18 000 motorcycles ply Congolese roads, the majority imported from India and China by small trading houses clustered along the Congo River quays in Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire. Leasing arrangements—known locally as “à gagne-pain” contracts—pair bike owners with riders who pay off the asset over twelve to eighteen months. According to the Congolese Chamber of Commerce, foreigners represented roughly 17 percent of riders under such contracts in 2023. Their exclusion could prompt leasing firms to recalibrate credit risk models, possibly tightening access for first-time Congolese applicants who lack collateral. On the supply side, import volumes are unlikely to plummet, as latent Congolese demand appears strong; yet margins may compress if owners compete for a narrower rider pool.
Calibrated diplomatic reactions and urban governance narratives
Foreign missions in Brazzaville have thus far adopted a restrained stance. A senior West African diplomat, requesting anonymity, remarked that “every country reserves certain occupations for its citizens; moto-taxi is a modest one, so we will not escalate”. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for its part, frames the decree as an internal matter that “neither targets any nationality nor undermines regional solidarity”. Municipal leaders in Brazzaville emphasise that taxi-bike congestion has reached levels incompatible with pedestrian safety in the Plateau des Quinze-Ans district, where sidewalks are narrow and traffic signals seldom respected. They portray the decree as part of a broader urban-mobility toolkit that includes traffic-light synchronisation and forthcoming bus-rapid-transit lanes financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB, 2023).
Prospects for regulatory fine-tuning amid accelerating urbanisation
Congo-Brazzaville is urbanising at a projected annual rate of 3.7 percent, and planners concede that two-wheel transport will remain a structural necessity in peri-urban zones where asphalt is still scarce. Policy analysts suggest that a periodic review mechanism—perhaps every two years—could assess labour-market effects and adjust the nationality requirement if evidence shows unintended shortages. For now the government appears confident that domestic supply will fill any gaps, buoyed by young returnees leaving artisanal mining and agriculture. The decree’s success may ultimately hinge less on its nationality clause than on the quality of enforcement surrounding helmets, speed limits and insurance. Should accident ratios decline while employment indicators improve, Brazzaville will likely claim a policy win that fuses safety with social inclusion, offering a template for other Central African capitals navigating the complex intersection of labour, mobility and urban dignity.
