The International Monetary Fund (IMF), in partnership with Ecofin Agency and its Congolese publication Bankable, organized a high-level training for economic journalists in Kinshasa. This initiative, held from March 17 to 19, 2026, aimed to improve the quality of economic reporting in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Fifteen journalists from various national media outlets participated in the training, which took place at the IMF headquarters in Kinshasa. Idriss Linge, Director of Ecofin Academy, and Aboudi Ottou, Head of the Ecofin Agency's office in the DRC and Editor-in-Chief of Bankable, co-led the sessions. Participants studied the fundamentals of macroeconomics, the mechanisms of fiscal and monetary policies, the role of the IMF, and the use of artificial intelligence in economic information processing.
According to Réné Tapsoba, the IMF's resident representative in the DRC, this training is essential to ensure that key messages related to economic policies are accurately conveyed to the public. He emphasized the importance of journalists relying on reliable sources and understanding economic issues in a context of increasing misinformation. Idriss Linge added that Ecofin Academy wants to invest more in the skills of African journalists, especially Francophone journalists, who often have less access to training funds.
Participants welcomed the relevance of the training. Jérôme Sekana, a journalist at Agence Galaxie Médias, noted that the examples discussed reflected the country's economic reality and that the training was useful in strengthening the skills of economic journalists. Myriam Iragi, a journalist at Top Congo FM, said she had gained a solid foundation to improve the quality of her analysis and offer more in-depth content.
Geneva-based Ecofin Agency specializes in African economic information. It provides daily coverage of nine key sectors of the African economy, including public management, finance, telecommunications, agribusiness, mining, energy, transport, communication, and education. Aboudi Ottou, who heads the Ecofin Agency office in Kinshasa and is Editor-in-Chief of Bankable, was appointed Ambassador for Economic Diversification in Central Africa in March 2026. This training takes place as the IMF insists on the urgency of reforms to stabilize the DRC's economy.
