Microsoft will celebrate Black History Month with collections of games, movies, tv shows and community events across Xbox and Windows. The company will be offering gaming experiences that highlight the contributions of Black and African American developers and creators.
Through the curation of collections of games, movies and tv shows by Black communities at Microsoft in the Windows and Xbox digital stores. Titles include, ‘Afterparty, Watch Dogs 2, Apex Legends, The Sims 4, Black Panther, Insecure, Hidden Figures and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’.
Microsoft will also raise awareness of causes that matter to Black communities and allow Xbox gamers to earn and donate Microsoft Rewards to organizations supporting Black communities.
These initiatives aren’t just a celebration of inclusion in gaming says Garron Ballard, Global Games Category Manager for Xbox and Windows Digital Stores. They’re also a chance to challenge assumptions around what a gamer or game developer looks like, he adds.
“I grew up playing video games, I’ve always been really interested in science fiction and fantasy. Growing up in an African American family and going to school in spaces where I was really in the minority … I always felt very abnormal,” “There are a lot of people who have preconceived notions of what a Black person is or what a Black person should like.”
Garron Ballard
Minecraft Education Edition is also offering four lessons as a free demo from now till 28th February to anyone to mark the celebrations. The four lessons cover social justice, identity, and civil rights. They are ‘Good Trouble: Black lives matter, Good Trouble US Civil Rights, The “I”in Identity and Who is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’.
Microsoft notes these initiatives are not limited to Black History Month. It says it is part of the inclusion work happening at Microsoft to make gaming for everyone.
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The Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has hinted the Federal Government (FG) of Nigeria is looking to work with Microsoft to make Nigeria the tech hub of Africa.
By collaborating with the multinational corporation to use technology to address issues affecting Nigerians and engage Nigeria’s youth.
The vice-president met virtually with Brad Smith, Microsoft President and Akin Banuso, Microsoft country manager, Nigeria. When Microsoft called on him to offer support for the Digital Transformation pillar of the Federal Government’s economic sustainability plan.
The meeting saw Microsoft disclosing plans to partner with the Nigeria FG for the benefit of the Nigerian people especially the youth. The finer details of this partnership are yet to be agreed on.
Microsoft president Brad Smith notes, the vision for Microsoft’s investment in Nigeria is one that will lead to the creation of Africa’s most viable technology ecosystem.
The vice-president has on various occasions appealed to global technology multinationals to build capacity and employ Nigerians.
I have always wondered how Microsoft can be a much more effective partner with us as a country, Prof. Osibanjo asks.
“Beginning with the African Development Center which I think is excellent, I think it shows the commitment of Microsoft in developing the digital centre here in Nigeria. And it also shows the company’s confidence in the sort of talents that we have and the commitment of the government to ensuring that we develop that talent in the best possible ways that we can.”
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You go to a shop, purchase an item and want to pay with M-PESA. You look around to find the notice with the till number and take turns looking up and down to enter the number on your phone. More often going over the number one more time or twice if you got it wrong initially. We’ve all been there, especially when you are in a haste.
How will you like a situation where you can just launch the Safaricom, KCB, Equity, I&M or your bank or Sacco’s app and using your camera it gets you that information? You only enter the amount you are paying, your pin number, et voilà you are set to go.
Unfortunately, Safaricom doesn’t have that feature in their app yet. The app, however, allows customers who prefer to use the voucher card to scan the 16 digits and it will automatically pick the digits.
That might change soon with this genius innovation from Jama Mohamed. A Business Information and Technology student graduate of Strathmore University.
Jama created an android detection library that uses Microsoft Azure Computer Vision service Read API to detect M-PESA business account numbers from images.
With this, it will be easier, faster and more accurate than typing an M-PESA paybill and till number. It is also able to know the exact category the image falls under, so no mix match there.
The software engineer’s open source project opens the door for financial service organizations in Kenya using the M-PESA API to add this plug and play android library to their app. Making it easier for customers using their app to use this functionality for payments.
Computer vision innovation
Jama shares the idea for the project came after having to confirm about five times for something he was purchasing.
I was purchasing something from the web that had M-PESA paybill as a payment option. The account number was a long randomly generated string that I basically had to confirm like five times.
And that’s where the idea came from, just to take some form of picture and use machine learning to extract information that was important.
The idea was to get these details a little faster than just typing them all the time since some businesses don’t have QR codes.
Hopefully, Kenyan financial organizations will add Jama Mohamed’s library to their app. Or work with him to create a unique one. So that next time you open your Standard Chartered, KCB, Equity, Ecobank, etc. or Safaricom app to pay for a purchase you just use your camera.
Jama welcomes contributions from other developers to improve the library. Check out the library on GitHub.
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The partnership program with Microsoft Nigeria has seen women trained in coding and deep tech skills. Through an experiential learning initiative called the Nigerian Women Techsters.
With partners like Microsoft we have been able to train 2475 women across 12 states in Nigeria for free, says Diwura Oladepo, Executive Director Tech4Dev.
Nigerian Women Techsters takes women from varying backgrounds through a cohort of 12 weeks.
Training them in coding and analytical skills. As well as exposing them to available employment and entrepreneurship opportunities within the technology space.
The digital skill tracks covered include, web and mobile application development, games development and embedded systems.
Fatima Ahmed a participant of the Tech4Dev Nigerian Women Techsters program shares her experience.
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Fatima is a chemistry graduate from the University of Ilorin. Like many other Nigerians, she couldn’t get any job after her national youth service program. She recalls a friend telling her about the opportunities in tech.
“Coincidentally at that time another friend told me about the Nigerian Women Techsters program. Where she learnt how to code and build websites. Seeing what she could do i was motivated to apply.”
She shares gaining technical and soft skills. Learning how to code and build websites, communicating effectively and working in teams.
I thought i was just coming to learn new skills and go back to apply for jobs. But during the training, i started getting job opportunities. Today, i work as a technical support engineer at Tek Experts, where i provide cloud-based solutions. I am glad i took a bold step to come for the Nigerian Women Techsters training.
Amazon, Software engineer and Teaching have emerged as the top trending employer, job and skill respectively in South Africa.
This is according to data from Microsoft’s LinkedIn Economic Graph. Which Microsoft believes can help policymakers make informed decisions and chart new paths to economic opportunity.
Multinational technology company Amazon, Webhelp, OUTsurance, Old Mutual and the University of Cape Town make the top five in the top trending employer’s category.
In the top trending jobs category, software engineer, project manager, attorney, financial advisor and sales executive make the top five.
The top trending skills across all industries in South Africa were teaching, financial accounting, financial reporting, project planning and sales management.
Microsoft uses global data of about seven hundred and twenty-two million LinkedIn members, fifty-five million companies and twenty-four million jobs to track workforce trends.
However, the data from the Microsoft LinkedIn economic graph doesn’t mention the specific number from which the South Africa insights were drawn.
The insights are taken from LinkedIn users in Cape Town and Johannesburg and from about ten industries. Such as legal, public administration, education, corporate services, real estate, finance and software and IT services.
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