• ENIA 2.0 awards 500+ digital, AI training scholarships in Brazzaville
• Three-year tuition-free program targets youth innovation, tech entrepreneurship
• Initiative supports Congo’s digital economy push amid 40% youth unemployment
  

École du Numérique et de l’Intelligence Artificielle (ENIA 2.0), a school specializing in digital and artificial intelligence, has awarded more than 500 scholarships for digital and AI training to high school graduates.

The scholarships were presented at an official ceremony in Brazzaville on Monday, November 3, for the school’s second cohort of students. Recipients also received academic kits to begin a three-year program designed to train digital professionals and entrepreneurs skilled in innovation.

The initiative is part of ENIA 2.0’s “My Future Scholarship” program, which aims to award 1,000 scholarships this academic year, with plans to expand to a new campus in Pointe-Noire. Candidates are selected from recent high school graduates who meet the admission criteria for the three-year tuition-free program.

Students will benefit from practical coaching, internships, hands-on experience in digital entrepreneurship, and ongoing mentorship to help them develop innovative projects.

The program responds to both the shortage of digital training opportunities in the country and to the government’s strategy to develop creative and tech industries. ENIA 2.0 said the project aims to “equip Congolese youth for the jobs of the future” through free, high-quality training.

The ENIA 2.0 initiative comes as the Republic of Congo faces a high youth unemployment rate, estimated by the World Bank at 40% in 2024. The country is urgently seeking economic diversification and is working to position itself in the digital economy, a sector analysts see as a key driver of job creation and innovation. World Bank projections from 2023 indicate that by 2030, Africa will have around 625 million people needing to acquire digital skills.

Félicien Houindo Lokossou