10 Leaders The EconomistAugust 3rd 2019
2 need to ensure that central banks’ monopoly over coins and
notes is not replaced by private monopolies over digital money.
Rather than letting a few credit-card firms have a stranglehold on
the electronic pipes for digital payments, as America may yet al-
low, governments must ensure the payments plumbing is open
to a range of digital firms which can build services on top of it.
They should urge banks to offer cheap, instant, bank-to-bank
digital transfers between deposit accounts, as in Sweden and the
Netherlands. Competition should keep prices low so that the
poor can afford most services, and it should also mean that if one
firm stumbles others can step in, making the system resilient.
Second, governments should maintain banks’ obligation to
keep customer information private, so that the plumbing re-mains anonymous. Digital firms that use this plumbing to offer
services should be free to monetise transaction data, through,
for example, advertising, so long as their business model is made
explicit to users. Some customers will favour free services that
track their purchases; others will want to pay to be left alone.
Last, the phase-out of cash should be gradual. For a period of
ten years, banks should be obliged to accept and distribute cash
in populated areas. This will buy governments time to help the
poor open bank accounts, educate the elderly and beef up inter-
net access in rural areas. The rush towards digital money is the
result of spontaneous demand and innovation. To pocket all the
rewards, governments need to prepare for the day when crum-
pled bank notes change hands for the last time. 7W
hen congolese blood is spilled by machete-wielding mi-
litiamen, outsiders barely notice. Was the death toll from
the Democratic Republic of Congo’s civil war 800,000 or 5m? No
one kept an accurate tally. By contrast, when blood spills out of
Congolese Ebola victims, the world pays attention. The World
Health Organisation says that 1,707 people have so far died in
Congo’s current Ebola outbreak. On July 17th it declared it a global
health emergency.
It is obvious why an infectious and often fatal virus concerns
everyone. Unchecked, it might spread into neighbouring Ugan-
da, Rwanda, South Sudan and beyond. More cases have been re-
ported in the bustling border city of Goma. The world is right to
take this epidemic seriously, and to pour resources into fighting
it. However, it should also spare a thought for the other kind of
bloodshed in Congo—not least because it makes tackling Ebola
much harder. Men with guns have taken to
burning down Ebola clinics and killing health
workers (see Middle East and Africa section). Lo-
cal bigwigs are thought to be behind some of the
attacks, perhaps to drive away the ngos that
made it too hard to embezzle aid dollars. In the
two Congolese provinces worst-hit by Ebola,
dozens of armed groups, some with foreign
backing, are fighting the state, looting minerals
and preying on civilians.
This is not just a local problem, so it matters how outsiders
deal with Congo’s new government. The good news is that, after
18 years of larcenous tyranny under Joseph Kabila, Congo has a
different president. The bad news is that Félix Tshisekedi did not
really win the election that was held in December. Rather, he won
the vote count, after a rumoured backroom deal with Mr Kabila.
It is now unclear who is in charge. Mr Kabila controls the nation-
al assembly and the army. Mr Tshisekedi has executive powers
that may grow with time. So far, he seems considerably less aw-
ful than his predecessor. He has released political prisoners, al-
lowed free speech and is eager to win budget support from the
imf. Several outside powers, such as America and the World
Bank, think he represents a chance of change for the better. Oth-
ers are working with him because they have no choice: Ebola will
not wait until Congo is a democracy.The most urgent task is to identify those who have been in-
fected, treat them and vaccinate the people with whom they have
come in contact. A big push now will cost less, and save more
lives, than a weaker effort that lets the epidemic grow. Neigh-
bouring countries should resist the temptation to ban travellers
from Congo—many would simply sneak across borders, making
it harder to monitor infections. Fighting Ebola will require some
actual fighting, too. The unpeacekeeping force in Congo, which
normally sticks to defending civilians, is helping the Congolese
army push rebel groups that threaten aid workers out of the
Ebola zone. It is right to do so. And the $1bn a year that donors
spend on blue helmets in Congo is a bargain compared with oth-
er conflicts. It should not be reduced.
In the long run, Congo needs better, cleaner government. If
Mr Tshisekedi is sincere about reform, there are several things he
could start doing now. His predecessor hardly
built anything—Congo has whole cities without
grid power. Mr Tshisekedi should work with
private investors to build roads and generate
electricity, without which Congo cannot proper-
ly exploit its mineral wealth, let alone move be-
yond it. More important, he should end the im-
punity that has let warlords kill and politicians
steal. Some of the fatter fish should be put be-
hind bars. To curb the smaller fry, the government should sim-
plify the impossible tangle of rules and inspections that lets cor-
rupt officials bully businesses into paying bribes to be left alone.
Until it is easier to do business in Congo, the country will stay
poor and unstable.
Most donors do not want to reward a stolen election. But no
one wants to see the collapse of a state seven times the size of
Germany at the heart of Africa, either. It is too early to say wheth-
er Mr Tshisekedi’s regime will be as corrupt as its predecessors,
but it might not be. Mr Kabila’s baleful influence may wane. Des-
pots who seek to remain in charge by bequeathing their office to
a puppet sometimes succeed (think of Vladimir Putin). But
sometimes they fail, as in Angola, where the appalling dos San-
tos clan has been swept aside. Donors should offer Congo lots of
technical help. And if the new regime proves serious about
cleaning up its act—a big if—they should back it with cash, too. 7If it bleeds, pay heed
Ebola is not the only enemy in CongoThe Democratic Republic of Congo