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Isidore Kwandja: “Felix Tshisekedi wants to take the digital turn”

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Isidore Kwandja: "Felix Tshisekedi wants to take the digital turn"

[TRIBUNE] – In just over seven months after taking office, President Felix Tshisekedi embarked on a major project to roll out digital public administration in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by 2025.

Pending the composition of the government team which will, of course, be responsible for leading and coordinating the implementation of this ambitious reform, the staff of Felix Tshisekedi have not lost their time because of this delay. They immediately set to work to build a digital nation plan, which ministers responsible for this issue will find on their drawing boards.

The national digital plan is in line with President Tshisekedi’s desire to modernize the Congolese public administration, progressively migrating to digital, to make it more professional and more effective and to adapt it to the requirements of modern governance, in an increasingly interdependent world. All this in order to ensure greater transparency in the management of public affairs and finances, on the one hand, and to fight corruption effectively, on the other hand.

Felix Tshisekedi wants all state officials to use information and communication technologies as much as possible to computerize records management, to eliminate the mountain of paperwork that clutters offices and to gain access to information. real time information. A daunting challenge in the context of an administration where most civil servants do not even have a computer on their desk.

However, the digital shift has a triple objective: to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public services and to provide quality services at a lower cost. This digital shift is part of Félix Tshisekedi’s desire to modernize public management, in order to guarantee transparency, improve decision-making processes and ensure rigorous management of public policies.

But the big question is obviously whether this will be possible, given that most of the ministries that are supposed to implement this reform will be led by the ministers from the Common Front for Congo (FCC) of the former – President Joseph Kabila, who does not necessarily share the same way of seeing things and who may not be in the same state of mind as President Tshisekedi, even though they are in a coalition.

One thing is certain, beyond the will of President Tshisekedi to take the digital turn to modernize the Congolese public administration, the realization of this ambitious reform will also depend on the political will of its FCC partners.

However, the transition to the digital age is a huge change that absolutely requires that we take into account all the internal and external parameters that can compromise the project. Indeed, the deployment of such a transformation is inevitably accompanied by certain operational inefficiencies. In this case, the major challenge for effective implementation of this transition to digital governance is the weakness of the Congolese public administration. Hence the need to strengthen the management capacity of senior state officials responsible for implementing this reform.

Admittedly, a series of administrative reforms had been initiated in previous years to improve the efficiency of the Congolese public administration, but judging by the results achieved, notably their failure to meet the need for efficiency, effectiveness and efficiency. of economy, it is necessary to ask whether there are no systemic problems within this administration that must absolutely be identified and corrected.

This is why we believe that the digital switchover requires the Congolese government to undertake a comprehensive reform of its public administration, including the organizational structure and the appropriate management bodies necessary for the implementation of the program. government action to increase the quality of citizen services and foster results-based management.

Structural reform is therefore necessary and will have to change the working methods and also contribute to an organizational culture that is conducive to professional development, to promote sound management in the public sector. The Congolese government will have to know how to make the best of all the expertise, internal and external, including those of the diaspora, who offer themselves to impulse a new dynamic in its public administration.

Isidore KWANDJA NGEMBO, Political scientist and public policy analyst

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DRC: USD 58 million down payment to oil distributors for loss of earnings

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Through the Minister of Finance, Doudou Fwamba Likunde Li-Botayi, the central government has announced the payment of $58 million, a first instalment of shortfalls, to all oil tanker corporations in all distribution zones.

The announcement was made at a meeting held on Monday November 4, 2024 by the Minister of Finance with a delegation of oil companies representing the various distribution zones in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

According to the Minister of Finance, this payment is part of the Government’s efforts to clear, in instalments and as quickly as possible, the revenue shortfalls for the 2023 financial year.

He also reassured oil companies that the next instalment would be paid shortly.

“Doudou Fwamba Likunde Li-Botayi declared: “The process of clearing these shortfalls is irreversible, and the Government’s various commitments, made through the Ministry of the Economy, will be honored in the interests of all parties.

AGNES KAYEMBE

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Africa: start-ups raised USD 254 million in October 2024

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The platform Africa: The Big Deal recently published the monthly financial report on African start-ups.

According to the report, in October 2024, African start-ups raised $254 million, a record for this month since 2019 as forty-two (42) companies raised financing despite a global context of tightening liquidity.

Indeed, these figures, places October as the second best month of 2024, after July, with an increase of almost 50% compared to the average of the last 12 months, a contrast to the global trend.
“The main highlight of the month was the transaction by Moniepoint, a Nigerian fintech, which closed a $110 million Series C financing round, representing 43% of the total raised in October. This fund-raising, one of the largest in the sector, could establish Moniepoint as the eighth African unicorn, a title reserved for companies valued at over one billion dollars. Other major deals of the month included the $42 million raised by BasiGo in Series A, and the $33 million obtained by cryptocurrency exchange platform Yellow Card in Series C.

In addition, the report notes that since the beginning of 2024, African start-ups have raised a total of $1.7 billion, spread over 393 deals exceeding $100,000, although this performance remains down 32% on the previous year.

Of these, 137 transactions exceeded the million-dollar mark, a year-on-year decline of 20%, reflecting the persistent tensions in the financing of technology start-ups.

AGNES KAYEMBE

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World: sustainable forest management, World Bank calls for annual investment of USD 536 billion

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The World Bank is sounding the alarm on the massive financing needs to protect the world’s forests and support the fight against climate change.

In its new report, the institution informs that to achieve conservation, biodiversity and land restoration objectives, stakeholders would need to invest 536 billion dollars each year, four times the current amounts, for a total of 8.4 trillion dollars by 2050.

Similarly, the Global Challenge Program: Forests for Development, Climate, and Biodiversity (GCP-F), launched by the World Bank, aims to transform forest management practices.

he objective of this program is to promote forests as economies in their own right, generating economic opportunities and sources of sustainable development.

This economic model, note the experts, is based on exploiting forest resources in harmony with nature, mobilizing private investment while meeting conservation challenges.

By integrating key sectors such as agriculture, energy and infrastructure, the World Bank aims to encourage “standing” forests, capable of supporting livelihoods, storing carbon and generating global public goods.

Flory Musiswa

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