Before you start

Passport, with your visa and entry stamp
Proof of a Kinshasa address — a lease, a utility bill or an attestation de résidence
A work certificate or contract if you want a salary account
Passport photographs; banks ask for them even where the rule does not

Step-by-step

1
Open a mobile-money wallet on arrival
M-Pesa (Vodacom), Airtel Money, Orange Money and Afrimoney are the real retail payment rails and they open in minutes on identity documents at any agent. They are also explicitly part of the BCC's answer to the cash ban: from April 2027 a foreign-currency transaction must be scriptural, and mobile money counts. If you learn one financial habit in your first week, make it this one.
Mobile appWho: YouMinutesFree to open; transfer fees apply
2
Open a bank account in your first month
Rawbank, Equity BCDC, Trust Merchant Bank and Ecobank are the banks most used by foreign residents and employers. Take the passport, the address proof and the work certificate together — an incomplete file is what turns a same-visit opening into three visits. Most residents end up with a dual-currency arrangement, a CDF account and a USD account, because that is how salaries and rent are respectively quoted.
In personWho: YouDays for an individual account with a complete file; one to four weeks for a business accountVaries by bank; ask for the full tariff sheet rather than the headline
3
Get your salary domiciled, and get rent paid by transfer
Landlords in Kinshasa have historically wanted dollars in cash, often many months of them at once. That practice is on a deadline. Agreeing from the start that rent moves by bank transfer protects you twice: it creates a payment record you can prove, and it means you are not renegotiating the whole arrangement in April 2027 under time pressure.
In personWho: You and your landlordAt the start of the tenancyTransfer charges only
4
Understand the banknote culture while it still exists
Traders, changers and hotels routinely refuse US notes that are torn, taped, marked or from an older series — a habit with no legal basis, as the Haut-Katanga provincial government pointed out in February 2026 when it instructed operators to accept damaged notes and reminded them that only the BCC judges authenticity. Knowing it is unlawful does not get your note accepted. Bring clean, recent, flat notes and keep small denominations.
In personWho: YouEvery transaction, until April 2027A rejected note is a total loss until you find a bank counter

Documents you’ll need

Passport with visa and entry stamp
Proof of Kinshasa address (lease, utility bill or attestation de résidence)
Work certificate or employment contract
Passport photographs
For a company account: notarised and registered incorporation documents, ID for any holder of 10% or more, a beneficial-owner declaration, a banker's reference under three months old, and a FATCA form where US indicators exist

Things most newcomers don’t know

The BCC is not banning the dollar. It is banning dollar CASH.

The governor made the distinction explicitly, and it is constantly misreported. From 9 April 2027 a foreign-currency transaction of any amount must go through scriptural means — transfer, card, or mobile money such as M-Pesa and Orange Money. Pricing in dollars, holding dollars, being paid dollars: all still legal. Handing over an envelope: not.

Source: Banque Centrale du Congo, April 2026 package

Banks already cannot import banknotes, which is why cash feels tighter than the 2027 date suggests.

From 9 April 2026 the BCC alone imports physical foreign currency. The stated purpose is securing the supply chain and cutting money-laundering and terrorist-financing risk, in the context of the DRC's work to leave the FATF grey list. The practical effect is that physical dollar liquidity is a managed resource now, and ATM behaviour reflects that before the deadline does.

Source: BCC measures announced April 2026; FATF grey-list context

Refusing a damaged dollar note is unlawful and completely routine.

It has no legal basis — only the central bank judges a note's authenticity — and it happens all day, every day, to everyone. In July 2026 traders in Butembo were refusing perfectly serviceable five-dollar notes. Plan around the practice rather than the law: flat, clean, recent notes, and small denominations for anything under a hundred dollars.

Source: Actualité.cd, March 2024; Haut-Katanga provincial instruction, February 2026

The interest-rate environment has moved fast and it is worth knowing which way.

The BCC cut its policy rate from 15% to 13.5% in April 2026 and again to 12.5% in July 2026 — three cuts in the year — against an appreciating franc. If you are negotiating anything with a local financing component, or holding francs at all, that direction of travel is the backdrop.

Source: Radio Okapi, April and July 2026

Common mistakes to avoid

Planning your finances around cash dollars as if April 2027 were not coming
Agreeing a cash-only rent arrangement with no payment record
Arriving with old, torn or taped US notes, or only hundreds
Reading 'end of the dollar' headlines as a ban on dollar transactions — it is a ban on cash settlement
Assuming a company account will open as fast as a personal one; for a foreign-incorporated company it will not

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.