After eight years of professional experience in the tech sector, he made the big jump into the entrepreneurship world. His choice seems to have been the best given his successful ventures. 

Jean-Louis Mbaka (photo) is a Congolese IT engineer. In 2017, he co-founded Kinshasa Digital, a digital marketing and web development agency offering digital solutions to boost companies’ activities. 

Kinshasa Digital is not the only digital venture created by the tech entrepreneur. For instance, the same year when he co-founded his digital marketing agency, he also launched Youdee, a real estate listing website. Two years later, he launched Kinshasa Digital Academy, which offers digital training.  

With Kinshasa Digital Academy, he wants to pass on digital skills (web and mobile development in particular) to as many people as possible to boost professional integration.  The training program spans over 12 months, including nine months at the academy and three months of internships. 

The initiative attracted some well-known companies like Vodacom. In April 2022, the telecom company signed a partnership with Kinshasa Digital Academy to build a research and innovation lab, dubbed Vodacom Digital Lab, in DR Congo. 

“In line with our aim, which is to develop local and robust content and applications,   “Vodacom Digital Lab” will provide a platform to allow Kinshasa Digital Academy’s learners and developers around the city of Kinshasa to have a better understanding of some sectors as well as enable them to develop and test their solutions,”  Jean-Louis Mbaka said when signing the deal with Vodacom. On July 8, 2022, the two partners presented a digital platform to follow-up and monitor Covid-19 patients. The platform was the result of the partnership between Vodacom and Kinshasa Digital Academy. 

With his decade-long professional experience in the digital sector, Jean-Louis Mbaka believes that digital technologies can solve many problems. He started his professional career, in 2009, as technical support for the engineering firm Entreprise Générale Malta Forrest (EGMF). After a  brief stint with tech company Schlumberger, he was recruited by logistics firm EGAL SA in 2014. He embarked on his entrepreneurship journey in 2017 while still working for EGAL SA. 

Melchior Koba