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Accounting training of the future

News • 03/07/2025 •
In this article

The Ministry of Education of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has recently published an in-depth analysis of the project launched in 2017 to modernize accounting education in technical schools.
The project has been a success in every respect and, in our opinion, represents a concrete example of how training initiatives should be structured and, more broadly, of the direction international cooperation should take in the future.
The presentation document is unique because it offers a local perspective, explaining in detail what has been achieved and the reasoning behind the decisions made. It provides deeper insight into the local context and shows how, even in challenging conditions with limited infrastructure, more than 11,000 teachers were trained—thanks in part to a strong community spirit and the Agile method. We believe it is a valuable read for anyone working in the field. It is available here, along with additional information:

 

The essential contribution of Banana Accounting

The credit for the project’s great success goes to the vision and organizational capacity of the Ministry, which was able to design and implement the initiative efficiently, despite structural and logistical challenges.
The document also highlights how Banana Accounting, the technical tool chosen to support this transformation, played a decisive role. Its key features — professionalism, simplicity, and flexibility — were highly appreciated by both teachers and students, and proved essential for adapting the training to the OHADA accounting system.

We are, of course, very proud to have been selected as the technology partner for this project and to have contributed to the improvement of training for accounting technicians in several ways, including:

  • Providing strategic consulting and support in defining the vision, methodology, and approach.
  • Offering the software free of charge to all schools in the commercial education stream.
  • Training and assisting the project management team.
  • Creating OHADA-compliant chart of accounts.
  • Developing custom software extensions to meet educational needs.
  • Producing accessible and scalable digital training modules.

An ambitious project, carried out with method and vision

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has 22 million students and more than 500,000 teachers. The project, implemented on a national scale, has already achieved significant concrete results:

  • Over 11,000 commercial-track teachers have already been trained and upskilled in digital and accounting practices.
  • In 2024 alone, more than 70,000 students were trained, and for the first time, digital final exams were conducted.
  • It is estimated that between 2020 (start of the project) and the end of 2025, approximately 700,000 students will have been trained.
  • Banana software is now the official tool for teaching and assessment.
  • Students become accustomed to using a digital accounting system and are therefore prepared to work with other accounting software as well. 

The reception in schools has been enthusiastic: many teachers have created support groups and multimedia teaching materials to assist their colleagues.

Training to manage complexity

Students learning accounting with Banana not only acquire essential digital skills, but are also capable of operating in complex contexts: multi-currency environments, high inflation—conditions often present in many African realities. This is also true in business contexts that use other software, because the digital training received is cross-cutting and solid in the principles of double-entry accounting.

Confirmed results and a look to the future

In June 2025, the exams were held for the second time. The results—regarding the preparedness and acceptance by students and teachers—were very positive, as clearly shown in the video from Lubumbashi mentioned at the top of the page.

In many schools, especially in rural areas, there is still a lack of well-equipped computer classrooms. The challenge for the future is to ensure that all students have equal access to quality training, no matter where they are located.

For this reason, Banana Accounting is working on improving both its mobile versions and its WebApp, with the goal not only to offer a modern tool to its users, but also to support a scenario where — thanks to technological progress and falling prices — every commercial-track student in the DRC can practice on their own device, following the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) approach.

Previous blogs about the project in the DRC

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