• The Democratic Republic of Congo aims to train 250,000 young people in digital skills under a five-year national program.
• The government signed a memorandum of understanding with Cisco and Cybastion in September 2025 to implement the initiative.
• Authorities target digital skills as a response to youth unemployment, as young people represent more than 50% of the working-age population.

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo announced on Monday, February 16, the completion of the first phase of trainer training in Kinshasa under a national digital upskilling program that ultimately targets 250,000 young Congolese. Authorities will now extend the project rollout to the provinces.

On February 13, 2026, the Ministry of Youth and Civic Education detailed the program framework. Five hundred young participants began a hybrid training pathway, and organizers will use a final test to select 200 top-performing candidates. Program managers will assign selected participants to three levels—Basic, Intermediate and Advanced—and will deploy them nationwide as skills multipliers.

In September 2025, the Congolese government signed a memorandum of understanding with Cisco and Cybastion to implement the program over five years. The curriculum will provide training in networking and cybersecurity, data science, programming and operating systems, technical English, digital transformation and entrepreneurship.

The ministry stated that, beyond training, “Cisco and Cybastion will support the professional integration of young people through their network of local partners, thereby creating real employment and entrepreneurship opportunities.”

The completion of the trainer training phase marks the effective launch of the broader youth training program in digital professions. Authorities view digital technology as a key driver of economic and social development and as a vehicle for job creation and youth empowerment, particularly as employment concerns persist in the country.

A 2022 study by the Ministry of Planning showed that individuals aged 15 to 29 account for 50.44% of the working-age population. The study reported a youth unemployment rate of 2.5%, compared with 1.4% for adults, and it showed that long-term unemployment affects 61.8% of young people versus 61.2% of adults. The study estimated that the country will need to create about 9.6 million jobs between 2022 and 2030 to stabilize unemployment and labor force participation rates, and nearly 35 million jobs by 2050.

Isaac K. Kassouwi