The Head of State, Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo is determined to endow the DR Congo with a National Digital Plan. The process of development initiated, through its special advisor in charge of digital, wants to be inclusive of all stakeholders. It is for this reason that the draft of this strategic document will be the subject of a review and validation within the framework of a workshop scheduled for September 3 to 5, 2019 in Kinshasa.

Indeed, the challenge of this validation meeting is to produce a consensual and inclusive roadmap. Objective: mark the path of a major digital transition through which the Head of State wants to train the whole nation to open a new horizon 2025.

The National Digital Plan project was developed on the basis of existing strategic instruments and input from the various experts in the field gathered around the consultation framework put in place.

A plan, four strategic pillars

The national digital plan will be based on four main pillars, namely: infrastructure; production and hosting of content; application uses; and governance and regulation.

« These different themes will be shared and deepened in the panels for validation and especially ownership by stakeholders, » reassured Dominique Migisha.

According to the Special Adviser to the Head of State in charge of Digital, this workshop should help to promote the convergence of strategic orientation and planning frameworks towards coherent and complementary strategic axes. Also, should it, promote a close articulation between the national development program of the DRC and the development of a digital economy.

#RDC Vers la validation d’un Plan national du numérique. Le conseiller spécial du chef de l’Etat, Dominique Migisha vient d’annoncer officiellement la tenue d’un atelier prévu du 3 au 5 septembre prochain. | ⁦@Presidence_RDC⁩ via ⁦@Zoom_eco⁩ pic.twitter.com/eoMgxYqPqM

— Zoom Eco (@Zoom_eco) August 2, 2019

Eight main objectives

The National Digital Plan has several objectives. According to the vision of the Head of State, they were defined as follows:

• Modernization of the administration and the pooling of resources and infrastructures to achieve significant gains and have an efficient and effective digital platform;
• Facilitating the interaction of citizens and businesses with the public administration and other partners;
• Offering better quality of services to users by enabling them to reduce costs and deadlines and ensuring maximum transparency;
• The need to make digital a vector of economic and human development;
• The importance of making digital a source of productivity and added value for other economic sectors and for public administration;
• The urgency of making the digital sector one of the pillars of the national economy;
• The positioning of the DRC as a sub-regional technological hub;
• The significant reduction of corruption and tax evasion.
• Faced with the digital divide that is plaguing the DRC and the delay it has experienced in taking advantage of the digital boom, the development of this national strategy has become an essential choice in order to definitively drive growth and growth. long awaited development by the Congolese people.

Eric TSHIKUMA