About GEN in DR Congo (Kinshasa)

The Global Entrepreneurship Network has been active in the Democratic Republic of Congo since the launch of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) in 2008. Known locally as La Semaine Mondiale de l'Entrepreneuriat, the annual campaign took root through a long-running partnership with YES Network DRC (Les Jeunes Entrepreneurs), which anchored successive editions and helped grow it from grassroots gatherings into a large-scale national event. By 2011, GEW activities in the DRC were reaching more than 15,000 participants across 25 events — among the larger campaigns on the African continent at the time.

The campaign's reach continued to expand over the years, both in scope and geography. In 2016, GEN partnered with Groupe Mosala and secured backing from the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa. The following year, a High School Startup Day brought entrepreneurship programming to secondary students for the first time. Shamba Group Sarl organized the 2018–2021 editions at prominent Kinshasa venues including the Hôtel du Fleuve Congo. Activities extended beyond the capital to provincial and eastern centers — including Bukavu, Butembo, Goma, and Lubumbashi — reflecting the country's vast geography and the breadth of its entrepreneurial community.

GEN's work in the DRC reaches into the policy arena through its Startup Nations community, a network within GEN that convenes governments around entrepreneurship reform. Officials from the National Agency for the Development of Congolese Entrepreneurship (ANADEC) have participated in GEN's ministerial convenings at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in 2018, 2019, and 2022. Junior Kalengula of ANADEC and advisors from the Ministry of Rural Development are leading the government's engagement with GEN to strengthen the national entrepreneurship environment.

GEN connects Congolese founders to its global programs, most prominently the Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC) — the worldwide startup competition GEN launched in 2019, offering training, mentorship, and a share of a $1 million annual prize pool to founders across roughly 200 countries. In 2025, Synchros, a human-resources technology venture, became the first DRC startup to reach the EWC Top 100 and pitch at the Global Finals during Biban in Saudi Arabia.

Building on more than fifteen years of ecosystem development and sustained government engagement, GEN established a permanent affiliate to advance its mission year-round. GEN DRC is led by Olivier Amani Rukubanuka, the managing director. Its senior leadership includes Joel Kambala, Nelly-Françoise Comte, and Bashonja Cikuru Xavier, alongside ecosystem leaders such as Eliud Aganze of KIVUHUB and Aimé Baraka Byamungu of FOBAB Group Sarl.

Drawing on a young, fast-growing population and a deeply rooted entrepreneurial culture in one of the world's most dynamic informal economies, GEN's mission in the DRC is to connect founders — in Kinshasa and across the provinces — to the networks, knowledge, and capital of its global platform, helping more businesses formalize, scale, and compete beyond Central Africa.