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title: US fintech to take DRC to court over alleged corrupt practices - Developing Telecoms
description: An American financial company, hired to plan a digitisation programme for the Democratic Republic of Congo, has filed a lawsuit in the United States against the country and several senior officials, reportedly alleging corruption.
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date: 2026-01-19T14:14:12Z
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An American financial company, hired to plan a digitisation programme for the Democratic Republic of Congo, has filed a lawsuit in the United States against the country and several senior officials, reportedly alleging corruption.

US company PayServices claimed it was contracted in late 2023 to digitise state-linked financial operations, including modernising the bank the Caisse Générale d’Épargne du Congo, rolling out electronic government payments, and building a national digital payments platform to support public salaries, social transfers and merchant transactions.

The company, which describes itself as a US-based financial institution that is focused on bringing innovation and marrying technology with banking, said it accepted the deal and invested more than US$72 million in technology and services. The contract required the Congolese state to pay US$20 million "within two weeks". This, allegedly, wasn’t paid. However, PayServices claims that bribes were requested by senior officials, some close to DRC President Felix Tshisekedi, though this activity is said to have been outside the DRC President's knowledge.

Their demands were refused, and, the company alleges, a number of individual defendants then conspired to sabotage and breach the contract and end the project

PayServices is seeking US$20 million in damages as well as reimbursement of its investment. However, the ITWeb Africa news service suggests that the company is seeking damages that could run into hundreds of millions of dollars, with some filings citing claims of up to US$4 billion.

The AFP news services reports that the State Enterprises Ministry has dismissed the allegations and justified the termination of the contract by accusing PayServices of misrepresenting itself as a bank despite lacking the "legal status of a banking institution".

PayServices highlights previously work on digital payments and government finance modernisation projects in markets including Nigeria, Ghana and Rwanda, to show that it can deliver on such projects – and that it has delivered in the past.

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