Working visit of the Deputy Director of the Center for African Studies to the Republic of Congo

From May 26 to 30, 2025, Vsevolod Sviridov, Deputy Director of the HSE Center for African Studies, paid a working trip to Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, as part of a joint delegation from Sberbank and School 21 (Sberbank’s educational project for training IT specialists).

During the visit, Sviridov held a series of working meetings with the Honorable Minister of Posts, Telecommunications, and the Digital Economy of the Republic of Congo, L.J. Ibombo, as well as with the Minister’s advisor, Dr. E.A. Ndoumba. They discussed further steps for cooperation within the e-Governance Knowledge Sharing Program for African officials implemented with the support of the “Innopraktika” company. This cooperation goes in line with the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications, and the Digital Economy of the Republic of Congo in April, 2025. In particular, parties discussed the details of the organization and thematic fields of educational program aimed at holding advanced training sessions for the Congolese middle and senior civil servants in the field of e-governance. Sviridov also presented to Minister a draft analytical report on the current state of e-governance in the Republic of Congo.

During the working trip, Sviridov also held series of meetings with representatives of the Congolese Posts and Savings Company  (Société des Postes et de l’Épargne du Congo, SOPECO), the Digital Economy Development Agency (Agence de Développement de l’Économie Numérique, ADEN) and the National Agency for the Information Systems Security (Agence Nationale de la Sécurité des Systèmes d’Information, ANSSI).