The Democratic Republic Of Congo's Weapon Against Ebola? Entrepreneurship

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is investing in entrepreneurship and digitalization to help tackle Ebola. The second worst outbreak in history has claimed the lives of more than 1300 people in the eastern region of the DRC over the last ten months. In 90 percent of cases, dehydration and organ failure leads to death. The biggest problem is containment. Violence and mistrust in medical authorities has deterred those afflicted from seeking medical treatment and in some areas, medical staff have been forced to evacuate. There are fears Ebola could easily spread across borders as people flee conflict-ridden areas for neighboring countries. In Uganda, already more than 100 cases have been identified and quarantined.

Recently elected President Felix Tshisekedi believes one of the biggest weapons to fight Ebola is entrepreneurship and technology. Liberated last December from 18 years under an autocratic president who used repression and violence to cling to power, just 6 percent of the DRC’s 80M population is connected to the internet. It is one of the poorest countries in the world, where the average monthly salary is $30 and one month of internet connectivity costs $100. The thought of tech entrepreneurs in the Congo takes a little imagination. But, President Tshisekedi has put digitalization and developing an ecosystem at the top of his list to serve multiple purposes: economic and social development, and more importantly, to help solve some of the country’s myriad problems, including Ebola.

In March, a team of seven Congolese students won a hackathon, only the second in the DRC’s history, designed specifically to leverage technology in the fight against Ebola. Fifty students competed in the event, sponsored by the Ministry of Health and Kinshasa Digital, a web design company founded by two Europeans and a Congolese, who recently established an incubator called Ingenious City. The winning concept called Lokole, uses technology that works offline: Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD). USSD is a mobile application that facilitates real-time transmission of data and information between a mobile phone and an internal app, without the need for an internet connection. USSD has been used in Africa, and elsewhere, for years typically for things like topping up pay-as-you-go phones, or checking balances. Lokole, the name of a traditional drum, is intended to speed up the entire process of detecting, reacting to, and treating Ebola, by transmitting data and information between communities and medical response teams. The app provides a questionnaire for community workers to identify symptoms and then alerts teams who coordinate with people in the field. It ultimately shares a final report with the Ministry of Health.

While development of a Lokole prototype is underway, the DRC’s new government-backed digital department, Viva RDC (Republique Democratique du Congo/DRC in English), launched in March, and is already raising its profile on a global scale. Last month, I was in Paris to serve as Master of Ceremonies for the European Commission’s Women Innovators Awards at VivaTech, one of Europe’s largest tech conferences. More than 100,000 people attended, including Jack Ma, Emmanuel Macron and Usain Bolt. Amid the stands and sea of people, the sign above the Viva RDC kiosk stood out. A cluster of representatives from the public and private sector, including the founders of Kinshasa Digital were there to raise awareness of the DRC’s ambitions. I spoke with Alexandre Singe Boyenge, recently appointed Assistant to the Special Advisor in charge of Digitalization, a new addition to Tshisekedi’s cabinet. He is nothing if not modest about where they are starting from and how far they will need to go, beginning with investment in infrastructure and establishing international-standard regulatory policies.

“We are building something from nothing. There are young people trying to do things, but there is nothing to help them, the ecosystem does not officially exist. We have to first create a legal framework. It’s a big country with so many things to do, so much opportunity. We want to provide the necessary framework for an ecosystem, ” says Boyenge.

Much of the country outside the capital of Kinshasa is rural. Local volatility and violence has discouraged foreign companies from investing in developing broadband networks - not to mention the 2 million children who were at risk of starvation last year. In war-ravaged countries, survival is priority, not the internet, but Tshisekedi sees technology and entrepreneurship as a way to begin addressing the country’s most serious problems while creating jobs and attracting foreign investment. He also knows that digital skills and access are crucial.

How will it be implemented?

Some of it is already happening, organically. Nicolas Zanghi, co-founder of Kinshasa Digital, and his colleagues plan to open a coding school this autumn. Zanghi has seen the ecosystem grow exponentially in the last year.

“For our first edition of Kinshasa Digital Week in 2018, 350 people attended. This year, it was 1500 people. We bring Facebook, Microsoft, and other African startups to the DRC because the ecosystem is very early stage, but it’s growing.”

Zanghi points out that along with the challenges: lack of incubators, lack of skills, expensive and low speed broadband, insufficient legal frameworks, there are also opportunities. The DRC has a strong workforce of young people willing to work hard. He, and others talk about a need for practically everything - from products to service, to infrastructure. Mobile money exists but is not heavily adopted, perhaps because with such low incomes, cash is king. French is well spoken, and in the east, English is widely spoken. Zanghi says the Congolese are hard-working and resilient by necessity.

“More than 95 percent of the population lives in the informal world with no job. They’re living off nothing; they have to be resourceful. They have to work like crazy to survive in a city like Kinshasa,” Zanghi says.

For Alexandre Singe Boyenge, he sees his role in the new digital army as a chance to help transform the future and the fortunes for his country and hopefully entice members of the Diasopora to return and share their knowledge.

“We had 17 years of wasting time. We see countries like Rwanda and we know we can do the same, but there has been no support from the head of state, so now we want to forge ahead. We have a whole generation that is lost – jobless for 20 years because of political instability. Those people will never go online – they will never buy a computer to start a business…there are no Congolese success stories yet. We have members of the Diaspora who are successful. The problem is they have no reason to come back. We need to give them a reason.”

Source: Forbes.com

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