The youth in Ekiti State, Nigeria, will benefit from a new collaboration between the state government and Microsoft Nigeria.
The partnership will see the youth acquire new digital skills, get certified and become employable.
Ekiti State Government will also invest about two hundred thousand dollars in two thousand participants with free vouchers to earn an industry-recognized Microsoft IT certificate.
The initiative is in tandem with Microsoft’s global skills initiative. Which plans to have about twenty-five million people gain new digital skills worldwide by March 2021.
The government notes the initiative is geared at the unemployed and underemployed. And part of the governor’s actions to mitigate the economic impact of covid-19.
The government is also working with three local hubs; GoGlobal Hub, Glimpse Solutions and Christore Hub in the initiative. These hubs will confirm competition of the selected course and issue participant with the certification exams voucher.
Here’s what to know to participate in the digital skills program.
Firstly, you’ll need to be a resident of Ekiti State to be eligible to participate in the program.
Secondly, you’ll need to have access to the internet and a device to complete the lessons.
Thirdly, you’ll need to register on the program website. Select a course to study and a hub for post training verification.
Once you have completed all the learning modules, you will download and print the issued certificate of completion. Present this at the hub to get a voucher to pay for the Microsoft certification exams. You will have about two weeks to take the exams.
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In the midst of the covid-19 pandemic and people getting laid off, Microsoft announced a global digital skills initiative. Offering free online courses to help people boost their digital skills or gain new relevant skills to be employable.
Three months after the announcement, the company shared about ten million people have enrolled in a course from two hundred and thirty-one countries.
In November 2020, the Microsoft Africa team noted that nine hundred thousand people are from the Middle East and Africa (MEA).
This number doesn’t look like a lot looking at the population of the MEA region. With Microsoft noting connectivity as one of the challenges in the MEA region.
To try and get more people across the region skilled up, Microsoft is partnering with organizations and governments to achieve this. Offering additional funding and services.
In South Africa, Microsoft is pledging one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to Afrika Tikkun. To help further its efforts of recruiting fifty thousand job hunters to take participate in one of the learning paths.
So far, the popular learning paths in the free online courses include software development, customer service and data analysis.
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Africa-focused and early-stage venture capital firm GOODsoil VC announces it is investing nine hundred and forty thousand US dollars as seed capital in Ghanaian fintech company Zeepay.
This part of the company’s mission to drive financial inclusion across the African continent.
Firstly, by leading the global surge of investments into Africa’s fintech market. Secondly, by being an example and offering investors a case study of real ROI through their investments.
GOODsoil VC also intents on becoming a catalyst of economic growth for minority founders across Africa. Noting there is a level of disparity in global funding for African startups.
“There are clear barriers to entry for tech startups to scale” shares Charmaine Hayden, Managing Partner and Co-founder. “Our vision is to level the playing field” she continues.
Charmaine explains the deal not only highlights the levelling of disparity in global funding for African startups. But also the challenges inherent in various levels of funding.
“Whilst the growth of seed investment in Africa is incontestable, it does not reflect the same volume of exits that is able to attract mass investors to the market. In order to sustain real growth, we believe there needs to be an increase in trade sales (exits); real tangible successes that can have a light cast on them to increase investors appetite into the continent.”
Charmaine Hayden
Zeepay, used in more than 20 African markets focuses on digital rails to connect digital assets.
Through this investment, Zeepay will continue to scale and roll out its services across the continent. It will also help in Zeepay’s plans to extend its global reach with plans to launch in the UK in 2021.
“We are delighted to have GOODsoil on board,” says Zeepay co-founder and managing director Andrew Takyi-Appiah.
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Global web innovator Opera announces its African user base has reached a record 150 million monthly active users.
The company notes this feat was recorded in Q3 of 2020 and shows an eighteen per cent year on year growth across all their products.
Jørgen Arnesen, Opera EVP of Mobile Browsers believes two things contributed to Opera’s continued growth across Africa in 2020. These are optimizing apps to solve everyday challenges and developing better apps with great features and personalized content.
In Q3-2020, the Opera user base in Africa showed a strong 18% growth of YOY across all our products. Reaching a combined user base of150 million monthly active users. We see significant growth in our apps like Opera Mini and News, and we’re confident that our growth will continue next year.
Jørgen Arnesen
Some of the things opera did to grow it user base in Africa include; adding a localised news channel dedicated to COVID-19 on Opera Mini and News.
The company also boasts that its News Hub has become the leading publisher of local African content with about 10,000 self-published articles every day.
Jørgen also shares what the company is doing to keep its users and promises more exciting announcements soon.
“We are continuing to optimize our products to offer our loyal users more reasons to use Opera. Users across many African countries candownload and stream music in our Free Music channel. We’ve made it easier for users to monitor their data usage via the Data Savings module on the home page.”
Jørgen Arnesen
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Microsoft UAE is showcasing how it supports sustainable farming with AI and IoT at 40th GITEX Technology Week in Dubai.
Using AI, Edge and IoT, Microsoft’s agricultural solution FarmBeats built on Azure enables data-driven farming to maximize agricultural output.
This data-driven farming entails using data visualizations, analytics and machine learning. The results; it creates automated recommendations on water usage and soil quality. That the company notes help during challenging conditions.
This is part of Microsoft’s AI for good global initiative to support sustainable farming practices and contribute to food security.
Located at H6-D20, Hall 6, a Microsoft Hub has been set up to offer attendees an opportunity to discover and experience Microsoft technology and innovations.
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Sayed Hashish, GM Microsoft UAE showing Microsoft technology innovations at the Microsoft Hub at GITEX Technology Week 2020.
Microsoft notes that governments are now reimagining a more positive world. As such the company is investing alongside them into critical technological infrastructure to solve pressing challenges.
Speaking to the media, Sayed Hashish, General Manager, Microsoft UAE notes there will be a need to feed nine to ten billion people by 2050. “This will require a significant increase in food production. However, there is a limited amount of additional arable land, and water levels have also been receding. Cloud technology may prove crucial to address this agricultural challenge,” he continues.
