Promoting youth entrepreneurship in the Congo

The DRC is fertile ground for anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit. Through entrepreneurship, the country could even become a locomotive of development for Africa. But for this wish to become a reality, a major social factor needs to be revolutionised: mentality. It is this mentality that drives - among other things - the creation of businesses, savings and investment. The role of the public authorities is therefore to encourage these elements, in particular through (i) reforms that improve the business climate and adapt the national education system to the country's socio-economic needs, but also through (ii) public funding of calibrated business support programmes. I am firmly convinced that in the long term, "investment" - by the Congolese state - in youth entrepreneurship will prove to be one of its best "investments". For every generation, young people have always been the future of the nation, and that future must be bright. With their potential, they can be a considerable source of wealth, because whole swathes of the Congolese economy are just waiting to be opened up.