A general procedure for the catalytic hydrogenation of nitriles to primary amines by using a non-noble metal-based system is presented. Co(acac)3 in combination with tris[2-(dicyclohexylphosphino)ethyl]phosphine efficiently catalyzes the selective hydrogenation of a wide range of (hetero)aromatic and aliphatic nitriles to give the corresponding amines. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim