Connecting the country, from the national backbone to the last mile

Extending transmission networks is the first building block of national connectivity. The results framework sets a target of 11,500 kilometres of additional, climate-resilient fibre optic, prioritising the routes that link provinces to one another and to international landing points.

These transport links form the backbone on which operators and service providers then build their distribution networks. Without them, local coverage remains costly, unstable and confined to major urban centres.

• 11,500 km of additional, climate-resilient fibre optic
• priority to interprovincial routes and regional corridors
• capacity opened to operators on a non-discriminatory basis
• greater resilience through route redundancy

The end goal is not kilometres deployed, but the fall in wholesale bandwidth costs — the condition for affordable access for the end user.

Across most Congolese territories, mobile is — and will long remain — the main way to access the internet. The project supports extending broadband coverage to several hundred currently underserved communities.

These areas are, by construction, the ones the market does not cover spontaneously: low density, limited income, difficult energy access. The project intervenes through targeted deployment support mechanisms, working with the universal service fund and operators.

• around 650 new communities targeted for mobile broadband
• targeting underserved rural and peri-urban areas
• articulation with the universal service fund
• energy solutions adapted to isolated sites

An administration cannot digitalise without being connected. The project provides for progressively connecting around a thousand public institutions — ministries, deconcentrated services, hospitals, health centres and schools — to the broadband network.

This connection directly conditions the services built by Component 2: without a quality link to government platforms, interoperability and online services remain theoretical for frontline staff.

• 1,000 public institutions given new or improved access
• priority to health and education facilities
• articulation with the GOVNET government network (Component 2)
• operating costs factored in over time

Higher education institutions are a decisive entry point: they concentrate intensive usage, train the skills the country needs and spread digital practices across their environment.

Working with the Ministry of Higher Education, the project supports campus connections, access to online scholarly resources and the creation of institution networks pooling their connectivity.

• connection of campuses and university libraries
• pooled connectivity across institutions
• articulation with Component 3 skills programmes

Physical investment is not enough: the price and quality of access depend largely on sector rules. Sub-component 1.1 supports strengthening the regulatory framework, in support of the regulator and sector authorities.

The work covers competitive conditions, passive infrastructure sharing, access to rights of way, wholesale tariff transparency and quality of service.

• support to the regulator and sector authorities
• passive infrastructure sharing between operators
• wholesale tariff transparency and quality-of-service monitoring
• simplified deployment procedures

Access is not just signal availability. It also requires a device, an affordable plan, useful content and the skills to use it. A network available beyond the means of those it covers produces no inclusion: it moves the barrier rather than removing it.

Affordability is therefore measured as a share of income, not in absolute terms. The results framework tracks the retail price of a standard monthly mobile data plan against gross national income per capita, and targets a fall from 10.3 per cent to 5.1 per cent. Halving that effort cannot be decreed: retail prices follow wholesale costs, which depend on available transport capacity, passive infrastructure sharing and effective competition in the wholesale market. That is the direct articulation between this project and the two preceding ones.

Actual usage is the only measure that counts at the end of the chain. The results framework targets 30 million people using high-speed internet, of whom 15 million women. That second target is not an arithmetical restatement of the first: without explicit targeting of access schemes, extending coverage reproduces the usage gap between women and men instead of narrowing it.

• standard monthly plan price: from 10.3 to 5.1 per cent of GNI per capita
• 30 million high-speed internet users targeted, of whom 15 million women
• affordability measures for devices and plans
• attention to rural areas and vulnerable groups

International bandwidth per capita is the most direct measure of a country's ability to take part in the digital economy. The project targets a marked rise by 2029, from a starting level of 6.65 kbit/s towards a target of 20 kbit/s.

That progression requires strengthened international links and deeper regional integration, within the APM IDEA approach to inclusive digitalisation in Eastern and Southern Africa.

• international bandwidth per capita roughly tripled
• strengthening national internet exchange points
• integration into the regional APM IDEA approach

Public financing alone cannot cover the country's infrastructure needs. The project seeks to mobilise significant private capital — in the order of 165 million dollars — alongside the public envelope.

This is pursued through public-private partnership mechanisms, risk-sharing adapted to low-return areas and a readable regulatory framework for investors.

• in the order of 165 M USD of private capital sought
• risk sharing in low-return areas
• public-private partnership structures