Microsoft, through its Africa Transformation Office (ATO), has announced a partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to support digital transformation in Africa’s agricultural sector.
In a session during the Adaptation and Agriculture Day at COP27 in Egypt, the IFC and Microsoft highlighted the partnership that aims to deliver digital agriculture products that support African agribusinesses to strengthen food security and develop greater resilience against climate change.
Through the partnership, digital tools such as Microsoft’s AgBot and Community Training applications are integrated with IFC’s Agribusiness Leadership Program to provide better information, newer technologies, and management capacity training to agribusinesses, farmers, and cooperatives.
“Digital technology can improve the operation of key supply chains in the food system by boosting production, improving business practices, promoting traceability, and increasing access to finance. However, the use of digital tools in Africa’s agriculture sector remains limited, often because of infrastructure, affordability, awareness, and regulatory issues,” said Henrik Elschner Pedersen, IFC’s Director for Manufacturing, Agribusiness, and Services in Africa.
“IFC and Microsoft are working together to change this so more agricultural players in Africa can leverage the power of the digital economy.”
Henrik Elschner Pedersen, IFC’s Director for Manufacturing, Agribusiness, and Services in Africa.
In Africa, agriculture is estimated to contribute about 25 percent of Africa’s GDP and 70 percent of its employment. However, the supply chains of many agribusinesses in the continent are fragmented and suffer from poor information flows. Additionally, many farmers rely on traditional agronomic practices and technologies that are under increasing pressure from climate-related shocks.
Current research estimates that smallholder farmers account for 80 percent of the farming community, with an estimated 33 million smallholder farmers. But they are often hard to reach, residing in remote areas, and lack access to skills, knowledge, and agricultural support services. Digital technology can improve the operation of key supply chains in the food system through greater agricultural efficiencies, improved business practices, traceability, food safety, and access to finance.
On his part, Kunle Awosika, Managing Director for Microsoft ATO said: “The changing climate presents new future opportunities for farmers in relation to emerging markets for carbon credits, regenerative agriculture, and the application of ‘nature-based services’. However, these new opportunities need to be underpinned by robust management and reporting systems. These are precisely the systems that are supported by the new suite of digital tools,”
The package of digital tools provides users with the opportunity to upskill in areas such as more productive climate-smart farming practices and the application of ‘farming as a business. The digital tools delivered through the partnership are leveraging Microsoft’s agritech chatbot known as the AgBot, which provides extension and advisory services to smallholder farmers using either feature phones or smartphones, via SMS, WhatsApp, and Telegram.
The AgBot provides a key platform that farmers can use to access information such as weather alerts, crop advisories, pest diagnosis, and market prices. Stakeholders in the agriculture ecosystem including governments, IFC, development partners, and private companies can also access the platform to deliver information to users. To date, over 500,000 farmers are actively using the AgBot to access information and improve productivity.
“By using digital channels, agronomic and business sensitive information is delivered directly to smallholder farmers to help improve productivity as well as mitigate the risks associated with climate change and unexpected weather events. Combined, the digital tools encourage improved farming practices, more sustainable and resilient farming practices, and greater efficiencies in resource use,” says Awosika.
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MTN Group and Microsoft are announcing a new partnership that will see them support customers across governments and organizations accelerate value creation and drive Africa’s economic growth using Microsoft platform solutions.
The agreement centers on transforming and modernizing MTN’s communications and technology infrastructure together with harnessing capabilities and building the largest and most valuable platform business with a clear focus on Africa.
“We are delighted to be partnering with Microsoft – a company with the strength and scale to complement MTN’s capabilities and to support our Ambition 2025 strategy,” said Group Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer Chika Ekeji. “Together we will use the power of technology and connectivity to innovate and accelerate the digitalization and development of the continent.”
The two companies will develop joint go-to-market plans across the markets where MTN operates. To serve the digital transformation ambitions of African enterprise customers. Microsoft will skill up MTN Group resources to drive focused selling of Microsoft’s products and cloud services in Africa.
“Our valuable, longstanding partnership with MTN will play a pivotal role in Africa’s digital transformation, and we are proud to continue building on that decade-long collaboration with our newest venture. We recognize the potential that Africa holds to stand among the leaders of the digital world, and we are committed to maximizing our partnerships to deliver infrastructure that accelerates this transformation and enables a connected, digital-first continent,” says Samer Abu-Latif, Corporate Vice-President and President of Microsoft Middle East and Africa.
The partnership also includes ongoing knowledge-sharing, innovation, and growth opportunities. Joint initiatives will be in areas such as digital education, micro-SME digitization, fintech, and gaming. To create shared value and extend digital and financial inclusion across Africa.
“Our partnership with MTN will empower and enable the future growth of Africa through the joint development of innovative solutions; a dedicated focus on digital skilling and education; robust go-to-market strategy transformation; and the advancement of SMMEs and industries to compete on the global digital stage”
The parties will also execute a carrier agreement that will position MTN as a major provider of terrestrial connectivity to support Microsoft’s Africa-based expansion plans.
The companies believe that digital transformation presents an opportunity for the continent to leap ahead and benefit from widespread socio-economic growth. Particularly when leveraging the power of the cloud.
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GITEX Global 2022 took place in Dubai and Microsoft participated in the annual technology exhibition. As a Silver Sponsor and a founding partner to DEVSLAM the newly introduced meetup community for coding developers. Highlighting solutions across tourism, fintech, retail, education, cybersecurity, and smart cities alongside its partners.
Microsoft showed participants what the future of mixed reality will look like under the theme “Believe the hype, it’s real”. This year at Microsoft’s GITEX 2022 hub, it hosted 26 partners to jointly showcase the latest Microsoft and Microsoft partner innovations and products.
For its flagship showcase, Microsoft partnered with Kagool to introduce a new use case for its HoloLens 2 device, which utilizes advanced Metaverse technologies to create a unique experience for tourists, allowing visitors to experience Dubai attractions virtually using Microsoft AI capabilities.
“GITEX remains the preeminent technology showcase in the region,” said Naim Yazbeck, General Manager, Microsoft UAE. “It is here that we predict and project. It is here that we showcase the new, whether it be a product, a service, or an opportunity. Microsoft has been the UAE’s partner on this journey for more than three decades and our involvement in GITEX Global 2022 will see our biggest presence yet as we look ahead towards a digital, connected future.”
Throughout the exhibition, Microsoft shared its thoughts on Web 3.0 and the role metaverse technologies, including the recently launched HoloLens 2 device, Mesh, and Teams, will play in the future of hybrid work. Microsoft also took a deep dive into cybersecurity and what it means in the multi-cloud era, covering the latest developments in the threat landscape and the implications of the multi-cloud reality for issues such as identity and data protection.
Microsoft speakers featured at AI Everything to explain the existing trends driving culture changes across the region in preparation for low code, no code, and the integration of smart solutions. At DevSlam, experts conducted a full-day Hackathon on day one of the exhibition and delivered a three-day certified coding masterclass.
At the Fintech Summit, Microsoft explored the challenges faced by start-ups in that space and how digital experiences have evolved in the FSI sector. Microsoft’s education experts also addressed the sector’s stakeholders on how distance learning will continue to take shape.
The next GITEX Global event will take place from the 16th to the 20th of October 2023 at the Dubai World Trade Centre.
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Microsoft is announcing a partnership with Liquid Cloud through its Africa Transformation Office (ATO) to provide cloud services to businesses across the continent. Liquid Cloud and the Microsoft ATO will collaborate to deliver resilient cloud in Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe to meet regulatory and data residency requirements, address low latency workloads, strengthen resilience, and enable business continuity.
The hybrid cloud environment extends Azure capabilities enabling customers to create cloud-native applications faster with Azure platform and data services such as App Service, Functions, Logic Apps, Azure SQL Managed Instance, PostgreSQL database, and Azure machine learning. As a result, customers will be able to innovate anywhere and use the Azure platform to bring new solutions to life that solves today’s challenges, while creating the future.
“We witnessed an accelerated adoption of cloud technologies in Africa, and businesses are now reaping the benefits of their investment. Our customers are increasingly moving to hybrid work culture, meaning the demand for cloud-based services will only grow. Our partnership will enable us to build comprehensive and edge-based cloud capabilities that meet customer regulatory requirements and ensure that they deliver value to their customers,” said David Behr, CEO of Liquid Cloud and Cyber Security.
On his part, Wael El kabbany, General Manager, Africa Regional Cluster, Microsoft said: “Critical infrastructure enablers are needed to provide access to the cloud to accelerate digital transformation and the adoption of digital technologies. Working with Liquid Cloud, access to the local cloud will be available to more organizations and highly regulated industries across the continent. In addition, the hybrid cloud provides in-country resources that address data residency, latency, and storage requirements,“
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Microsoft is announcing that it is expanding its partnership with the African Development Bank (AfDB) to support Africa’s young entrepreneurs facing a lack of investment and affordable access to finance under the bank’s Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Banks (YEIB) Initiative.
The expanded partnership seeks to support the establishment of national-level institutions through a public-private collaboration model to scale up technical and financial support for youth entrepreneurs and build their capacity. Through its African Transformation Office (ATO), Microsoft will work with the bank to develop youth entrepreneurship ecosystems, create jobs, and scale impact in Africa through digital inclusion.
Youth entrepreneurship, Microsoft notes will go a long way to solving the employment challenge. But admits a lack of investment, affordable access to finance, and quality business development services still present significant hurdles. The Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Bank is a unique value proposition set up by the African Development Bank that anchors and integrates efforts to develop entrepreneurship ecosystems in Africa.
“We believe much can be done to help foster youth entrepreneurship by collaborating with the African Development Bank, driving greater economic inclusion for this key segment of the population, and ultimately building a more prosperous society,” says the General Manager of Microsoft Africa Regional Cluster Wael Elkabbany. “Already we’ve seen considerable success partnering on initiatives such as Coding for Employment, which aims to equip millions of African youth with employable skills, ultimately creating broadscale employment“, he adds.
Through this initiative, the AfDB will bring together all relevant financial and non-financial parties and partners to play their respective roles in supporting youth entrepreneurs through mentorship, coaching, knowledge and experience sharing, and more.
The African Development Bank Vice President for Private Sector, Infrastructure, and Industrialization Solomon Quaynor says: “The strengthening of our partnership with Microsoft on the Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Banks (YEIB) is an important development in our journey towards harnessing Africa’s demographic dividend and facilitating the creation of millions of jobs for young Africans by 2025. The initiative places much-needed focus on youth entrepreneurship, which is key to achieving our ambitious employment targets.”
Collaborating with both private sectors and partners, the Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Bank will establish a funding scheme, credit guarantee scheme, and technical assistance programs to strengthen providers of services to entrepreneurs. In terms of policy support, it will advocate to governments for the business-enabling environment reforms needed to catalyse youth entrepreneurship.
Microsoft says it will also leverage its partner ecosystem, which covers 54 countries across the continent, to act on crucial technology solutions across four key areas. These include skilling, connectivity, small-to-medium enterprise (SME) digitization, and hardware:
Skilling To connect youth to economic opportunity and employability skills, the partnership will provide them with career pathways and learning content. This includes the use of existing e-learning platforms such as Coding for Employment. The initiative also aims to build the capacity of Enterprise Services Organizations, benefitting youth through training trainers.
Connectivity By leveraging successful connectivity solutions such as Microsoft Airband, the partnership will develop effective infrastructure models to help bridge the digital divide. At the same time, it will support other innovative solutions on the market either through direct or indirect investment.
Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) digitization The partnership also aims to improve SME digital literacy and business skills by creating access to curated learning content, certifications, business solutions, business skills, and specialized digital skills. This will be driven in partnership with LinkedIn and through skilling programs such as MS Learn and the Cloud Academy. Access to finance for digitally enabled SMEs will also be facilitated through Microsoft partnerships.
Hardware SME access to bundled hardware solutions will be created by Microsoft and its partners. SMEs will also be able to purchase Microsoft technology at discounted prices. The partnership also forms an important part of Microsoft ATO’s mission to empower 10 million SMEs through access to skilling initiatives and investments, and to generate the capacity needed to scale and provide digital skills to 30 million Africans.
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