Brazzaville hosts a decisive forum
On 26 and 27 November 2025, the third Brazza Cyber Security Forum turned Brazzaville’s riverfront into a buzzing hub of laptops, headsets and animated debates, all steered by the National Agency for Information Systems Security, INSSI, and welcomed by city authorities.
- Brazzaville hosts a decisive forum
- Innovation and sovereignty at heart of debate
- Economic stakes behind cyber trust
- Coding bootcamps nurture talent
- Start-ups, women and youth driving change
- Government projects reinforce the momentum
- Toward a continental shield
- What comes next for Central Africa’s cyber scene
For forty-eight hours, magistrates, police officers, start-ups, researchers and investors flowed between workshops, mock-attack labs and crowded coffee corners, exchanging tactics to repel the phishing and ransomware wave that, organisers warn, grew by double digits in Central Africa over the past year.
Innovation and sovereignty at heart of debate
The theme Innovation and Sovereignty Cyber: Building African Solutions for African Challenges set the tone from the opening address delivered by Minister of Posts, Telecommunications and the Digital Economy Léon Juste Ibombo.
“Digital security is no longer a purely technical issue; it has become a question of sovereignty, national stability and even continental dignity,” the minister insisted, urging participants to invent, produce and master home-grown technologies rather than rely on distant vendors.
Speakers stressed that hosting data abroad or importing proprietary firewalls can expose domestic traffic to extraterritorial laws, a vulnerability seen as incompatible with the economic ambitions outlined in the government’s digital transformation plan.
Economic stakes behind cyber trust
The African Development Bank estimates that secure online trade could add up to 180 billion dollars to continental GDP by 2030, but only if citizens and businesses trust the cables, clouds and payment rails moving their money and personal data.
Congolese fintech founder Emery Mvoula calls the forum “an insurance policy for investors”, arguing that reliable encryption, clear regulation and visible cooperation can unlock capital that still regards the sub-region as high risk.
Coding bootcamps nurture talent
On the sidelines, École 21 showcased its peer-learning bootcamp, pledging to train 500 ethical hackers by 2027 and offering each graduate a voucher covering exam fees for the globally recognised Certified Ethical Hacker qualification.
The programme already counts 120 students, half of them women, a ratio organisers display proudly as proof that cybersecurity can break gender barriers while delivering well-paid careers at home.
Start-ups, women and youth driving change
Skytech-Congo, the youthful company that first imagined the forum in 2021, returned with a colourful demo of its threat-hunting dashboard, showing scrolling code that spotted simulated intrusions in milliseconds and drew curious crowds from neighbouring stands.
Right next door, members of Kongo Cyber Women explained how they mentor high-school girls to reverse engineer malware and, more importantly, to pitch their solutions to investors with the same confidence as any seasoned entrepreneur.
“We read malicious code the way our mothers read market prices,” laughed developer Christelle Mabika, sparking applause that rippled through the hall and signalled a generational shift in how Congolese youths view careers in science.
Government projects reinforce the momentum
Taking the floor again, Minister Ibombo listed four flagship projects launched under the guidance of President Denis Sassou Nguesso: the full activation of ANSSI, a national data centre on Brazzaville’s outskirts, an African Artificial Intelligence Research Centre and a scholarship scheme for cyber specialists.
The data centre, already 60 percent complete, promises to keep sensitive archives on Congolese soil, cut latency for e-government portals and, more symbolically, give citizens a concrete landmark of digital sovereignty rising beside the National Highway.
International partners such as Alliance Smart Africa, the UN Economic Commission for Africa and Genew Technology offered technical expertise, while domestic firms Phone Control and Kosala agreed to test their devices under the certification protocols supervised by INSSI engineers.
Toward a continental shield
Delegates from Cameroon, Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo warned that a patchwork defence would leave each country exposed, advocating interoperable standards and a regional emergency response network able to isolate attacks within minutes.
During the gala night, the Brazza Cyber Security Awards honoured a biometric wallet designed in Pointe-Noire and a low-bandwidth intrusion detector built by Kinshasa universities, two tools judged ready to scale across Central Africa’s diverse connectivity landscapes.
What comes next for Central Africa’s cyber scene
Organisers pledged to publish a white paper summarising best practices within a month, then tour universities in early 2026 to translate the recommendations into coursework that leads directly from lecture hall to security operations centre.
“African digital sovereignty cannot be proclaimed; it is built day after day,” the minister concluded, inviting attendees to return with prototypes rather than PowerPoints—a challenge many accepted with a nod that hinted at a vibrant 2026 edition.
