Hello Mrs. Sidonie Latere and thank you for giving us your time. You are responsible for Kobo Hub, a Congolese incubator-accelerator. What services do you offer?

Sidonie Latere : Kobohub offers completely different services to incubators, in particular because we support existing projects. While an incubator helps develop ideas into projects. The goal is to bring this business project to find its full potential. We offer a support program that lasts six months. It includes coaching, training, mentoring. The program is tailor-made because it follows a diagnosis of the project. We then define an execution plan (overall management of the company, management of the finance department, legal, sales, marketing, everything the company needs to evolve). During this period,the Kobohub team replaces the entrepreneur’s team to enable them to improve their skills and be able to achieve the objectives set at the start of the support, in particular the fact that the business project, products and services correspond to a real demand from a target market. The expected result is to make income. At the end of the process, for projects which have experienced growth, real stability as well as a real and permanent commitment from the entrepreneur, Kobohub projects are labeled and we are looking for investors who will allow these projects to go into a another phase of growth. In short, we do Market-fix and Go-to-Market. The expected result is to make income. At the end of the process, for projects which have experienced growth, real stability as well as a real and permanent commitment from the entrepreneur, Kobohub projects are labeled and we are looking for investors who will allow these projects to go into a another phase of growth. In short, we do Market-fix and Go-to-Market. The expected result is to make income. At the end of the process, for projects which have experienced growth, real stability as well as a real and permanent commitment from the entrepreneur, Kobohub projects are labeled and we are looking for investors who will allow these projects to go into a another phase of growth. In short, we do Market-fix and Go-to-Market.

Tell us about the genesis of this project, what motivated you?

Sidonie Latere : Kobo Hub was born from my own experience. After leaving Belgium, I moved to Kinshasa. I worked for a communications agency, I resigned to create my own agency in 2013. It exists to this day. I realized that the DRC was a field of opportunities. I have started several projects that have failed significantly. From this bitter observation, I concluded that the real challenge for doing business in the DRC was the local environment. It is not developed enough to allow entrepreneurs to succeed. It would take a hundred times more effort to succeed in the DRC rather than in Belgium or the United States. The ecosystem elsewhere is already formed. The first challenge for us was therefore to create this environment in which I would have liked to find myself and undertake. Kobo Hub currently allows entrepreneurs to come to a space where there is permanent electricity, internet connection, where one can find a network of successful entrepreneurs for sharing experience and skills.

Since your debut in 2018, what assessment have you made in relation to your initial objectives?

Sidonie Latere : the results are positive because Kobo Hub was an idea that turned into a project. A project that has become a business and a business that gives rise to other businesses. Over these few years, we were able to exceed the objectives we had set for ourselves. We were able to create our small ecosystem, we were able to convince entrepreneurs to entrust us with their business projects, we were able to transform their businesses, we were able to convince donors to invest in our business project to allow us to do this work. We were able to convince individual investors, companies or organizations to be able to invest funds in projects that benefit from our support. The results are very positive. Currently (in January 2022), we have been able to launch two other Hubs, in Lubumbashi and Goma.At first, we didn’t even imagine opening anywhere else. So far, we are very happy with the results.

Concretely, what results have you achieved so far and which companies do you work with?

Sidonie Latere : we have supported companies in the fields of agriculture, processing, cosmetics, entertainment and NICTs. Per year, we currently support between 10 and 15 companies. A huge number in terms of work, we have seen companies evolve.

What are your ambitions for 2022 and the prospects for the next 10 years?

Sidonie Latere: 2022 is off to a great start because in 2021 we were named by Global Startup International as the best incubator and accelerator in Central Africa. This year, we will continue to improve and be nominated for the best incubator and accelerator in Africa. We want to make our mark in Goma and Lubumbashi, in particular by training more than 500 people including young people in different professions and to be able to launch an entrepreneurship program intended for local entrepreneurs. In the next 10 years, we would like to become a reference in terms of supporting entrepreneurs in French-speaking Africa. We target cities and countries. We are therefore open to partnership. The future of Congo lies in youth entrepreneurship.We must be that generation that undertakes and creates businesses to allow the generations that follow to have enough jobs. This is our challenge.

What role do you think women should play in developing technological solutions adapted to the needs of society in the DRC?

Sidonie Latere : I don’t think women have a specific role in this. The DRC has missed all the industrial revolutions. Currently the whole world is in the middle of the digital revolution, we are one step behind. As men and women, we all have a role to play. The challenge is great for everyone. I also think that women can use digital and technological tools to make their voices heard.

Have you encountered any difficulties in your journey? How did you overcome them?

Sidonie Latere : Entrepreneurs around the world all experience the same difficulties. This is particular in the DRC because the environment is very hostile to the development of entrepreneurs’ projects. You must first start alone, then convince others to join your project, locally people do not want to take risks with you. The other big difficulty concerns human resources. We have very few Congolese competent in specific fields, very few who have a real work mentality, who realize that at the beginning, it is not 100% that we must give but 1000%. To overcome this difficulty, I had to take two people, invest a lot of time to train them, coach them to be able to do a minimum of the expected work. ThenI went to raise funds to allow us to obtain training to support entrepreneurs. We managed to be trained by a pan-African structure.

Can you look back on your journey?

Sidonie Latere : I studied in Belgium in 2013 when I returned to Congo. I started my first company, then Kobo Hub. I am the founder of this accelerator and an investor-shareholder in several other structures in the fields of agriculture and new technologies.

A last word?

Sidonie Latere : I encourage Congolese entrepreneurs. The DRC is a poor country, ranked globally as the sixth poorest country. We should be aware of this situation, work, be this generation that must sacrifice itself, build this beautiful and strong Congo of our dreams. I encourage you to get closer to accelerator incubators and training centers. There are lots of ideas to develop and small training courses to have. I also encourage the government, local and foreign structures to get closer to existing structures such as ours, to be able to form partnerships. If there were several actions like ours developed in every corner of the country, we would see real change beginning.