From Innovation to Impact: Support for Congolese Entrepreneurship is Creating Jobs and Growth

Early in the morning, in a bustling neighborhood of Kinshasa, Sivi Malukisa remembers her beginnings.

Today, Manitech Congo, her agro-industrial company, produces tons of peanut butter and chili sauces every month, employs dozens of people, and supports entire industries. This is an individual success story, but it is also the result of a project with innovation and risk taking at its heart that has transformed the Congolese entrepreneurial environment.

From 2018 to 2024, the Small-Medium Enterprise Development and Growth Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (PADMPME), with $100 million in IDA financing from the World Bank, has supported entrepreneurs in the cities of Kinshasa, Matadi, Lubumbashi, and Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

A small pilot supported by the SME Launchpad, a joint IFC-WB program that provided seed funding to develop novel solutions to small-medium enterprise (SME) challenges, paved the ground for the project. It supported a range of innovations including legislative changes to strengthen legal rights for women entrepreneurs in DRC; new ways of building capacity and changing behavior; and local partnerships to support access to finance and access to markets.

Innovation is always risky, even more so in a fragile context. But the risk-taking and hard work paid off. At the end of the project 6,012 businesses were created, 14,926 full-time jobs generated, with a sharp increase in MSME income. The 430 SMEs that benefited from the program saw their net sales jump by 63%; young entrepreneurs recorded a 43% increase in income, and on average, beneficiaries saw their business grow by 53%. And behind the good statistics are human stories. Stories of innovation, collaboration and determination.

In Goma, Musafiri Gogo is literally transforming her city. Winner of the project's Business Plan Competition (COPA), this woman has launched a paving stone production plant in a city where the security crisis has been worsening for several months.

In Kinshasa, young people came up with Schoolap, a digital solution for education. The platform is currently experiencing impressive growth. It has more than 400 client schools, nearly 50 employees, and more than 4 million registered school students. With more than 25,000 learning resources available, it has established itself as a major actor in digital learning in the country and continues to expand its impact on the national education system.

"We wanted to impact thousands of lives and simplify school life through digital technology. Today, we are present in five countries," said Christian Labi, Manager of Schoolap DRC.

PADMPME focused on improving economic growth and promoting initiatives adapted to the local context.

Jointly with the Africa Gender Lab, PADMPME extended the "Personal Initiative" training, a behavioral training program piloted in Togo, to 7,142 women micro-entrepreneurs and 3,010 young entrepreneurs who were empowered to enter new markets. 5,692 MSMEs benefited from grants, whether in cash or in kind. The project also helped build the capacity of 38 public and private institutions and set an innovative model for the SME Centers to address market and institutional failures. These SME Centers include shared public utilities, ICT, working spaces, production equipment, and access to soft infrastructure - all generating economies of scale. They also provide spaces for MSMEs to network, learn, and establish new partnerships.

For Magueye Dia, a private sector specialist at the World Bank, the message is clear: "Through the World Bank's ongoing programs, it is possible to achieve the DRC's development goals and put it on the path to economic growth."

PADMPME ended in 2024, but its impact continues. Today, the Empowering Women Entrepreneurs and Upgrading MSMEs for Economic Transformation and Jobs in DRC Project has scaled up the innovations piloted under PADMPME and now covers seven cities. Its goal is to amplify and accelerate MSME support to stimulate growth and promote job creation, with a particular focus on women economic empowerment.

A supported business does not grow in isolation: it brings along its suppliers, customers, employees, and often an entire local ecosystem. As Malukisa says with a confident smile, "This project was the small stone that started a snowball effect."

This is the power of innovation and entrepreneurship: every idea that is supported is a seed of prosperity that is planted. Every success inspires others to follow suit. And, little by little, the dreams of entrepreneurs become the driving force behind a country's development.