Kinshasa, April 18th, 2025 (CPA)- The consumption of ‘Made in Congo’ products was advocated on Thursday in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, at the local entrepreneurs’ expo by the founder of a structure. ‘We have to consume +Congo+. We need to encourage local consumption, and that’s also the problem we found at the National Assembly. At school, we study what concerns others and not what concerns us, whereas the best way to study is to have the capacity to develop our thinking and our immediate environment, which is really important’, said Eliezer Ntabwe, founder of the pesa +moninga sourire organization (Give your kinsman a smile). ‘The Congo cannot develop if we do not develop our internal capacity. A country cannot live on imports, we are having difficulty evolving because we do not know what we represent and develop’, he added. ‘What kind of Congo do we want? A Congo of diplomas or a Congo of trades, entrepreneurship means taking action and carrying out a project; you have to set yourself an objective, organise the means to achieve it, but there is an important element: risk.
He raised a number of problems observed in entrepreneurship with regard to the state structures put in place to enable its development, such as the poor functioning of these structures, which does not facilitate access for young entrepreneurs to launch themselves on the market. He suggested that experience shows that someone can start with a capital of USD 1,000, but to obtain the documents they need USD 2,500, including the time it takes to go through the administrative formalities. In his view, this is what causes most young entrepreneurs to give up altogether, and it’s a serious problem that needs to be addressed. With regard to local production, Mr Eliezer Ntambwe pointed out that it cannot be achieved without support. He cited the Investment Promotion Fund (FPI), which has the potential to add to entrepreneurial efforts. MP Ntambwe urged entrepreneurs to take the risk and let themselves be guided by these structures, which are there to provide complementary support.
The role of ANADEC incubators discussed
Mathieu Tshibumbu Muboyayi Acting CEO of ANADEC
For his part, Mathieu Tshibumbu Muboyayi, Acting General Manager of the National Agency for the Development of Congolese Entrepreneurship (Anadec), said that the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo had set up an incubator system in several provinces, with funding from the government and certain partners, to help entrepreneurs become competitive in response to the demands of those who place orders with them. ‘We realized that these people do not yet have sufficient resources to produce their own products, which is why we plan to set up pilot factories to enable them to produce everything they need, based on the incubators that will be set up here at the House of Entrepreneurship’, he said.He went on to say that certain incubators will also be set up in certain regions of the Republic. ‘Anadec is part of the Head of State’s vision to develop local products. We believe that to produce locally we need to support industries with technical means, so I recommend and encourage you to knock on Anadec’s door, because we can help you with your ideas and turn them into a business’, reassured Managing Director Tshibumbu. In fact, the national agency for the development of Congolese entrepreneurship has a mission to support all project holders, and once anadec has accomplished its task in terms of capacity building, technical and practical training, the project holder should draw up a business plan which will be submitted to Fogec, which will support the project holder in obtaining financing with the help of certain partners, he explained. It should be noted that another structure dealing with the middle class has been set up by the President of the Republic or the Congolese government, called the Agency for the Promotion of the Middle Classes (APROCEM), which assists young entrepreneurs in assessing the middle class. Its aim is to create a middle class that can support the Congolese economy and create the millionaires that the President of the Republic expects. ACP/