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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Google is hosting the second edition of its Google for Africa event from October 5th to 7th 2022. Where Google leaders will highlight new global products and updates specific to Africa, and share updates on its multi-billion investments across the continent. It will also host masterclasses including a session targeting tech and non-tech talent looking to work at Google.
The Google for Africa 2022 event will be an online-only event and kick-off at the following times across the region: 9 AM GMT, 10 AM WAT, 11 AM CAT, 12 PM EAT, and 11 AM SAT. We are not sure if the company will still go ahead and hold the usual country-specific mini-events later on.
This is how the Google for Africa 2022 event invite reads.
“Join us for the second virtual Google for Africa event as we share how we are delivering on [our] commitment and how we are building the future together. Join us to learn how Google is invested in Africa’s digital transformation“.
As is the norm at Google Africa events it will have two parts, a keynote and masterclass sessions. A forty-five-minute keynote session on the 5th of October 2022 led by Google and Alphabet CEO, Sundar Pichai. Then 13 masterclass sessions on the 6th and 7th of October, targeted at YouTube creators, business founders, NGOs, IT pros, and developers.
This year the company introduces a career path to Google session for tech and non-tech talent looking to work at Google. Masterclasses will cover areas like SMB growth, digital advertising, nonprofit management, YouTube Shorts, AI, and Google cloud.
Last year Google announced plans to invest $1 billion over five years to support initiatives including startups and connectivity. It launched an African Investment Fund to invest $50 million in startups and provide $10 million in low-interest loans to small businesses and entrepreneurs in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa through the non-profit Kiva. Google also announced plans to scale a program started in Kenya in partnership with Safaricom that allows customers to pay for 4G-enabled phones in installments across the continent with partners such as Airtel, M-KOPA, MTN, Orange, Transsion Holdings, and Vodacom. It also launched Plus Codes for streets without addresses and YouTube Shorts for creators.
MCGH will follow the event and will bring you updates from the Google for Africa 2022 virtual event. Missed the previous event? Watch the keynote highlights below.
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Microsoft names Kunle Awosika as the new Managing Director of the Africa Transformation Office (ATO) in a new reorganization to optimize its operations in Africa to scale impact. He succeeds Wael Elkabbany, who now heads Microsoft’s new Africa Regional Cluster (ARC) subsidiary. Kunle will lead the ATO subsidiary with a focus on driving digital transformation initiatives across the continent.
“I am passionate about the incredible potential Africa has to become a truly connected continent that exports digital goods and services to the rest of the world. I am delighted to have the opportunity to meaningfully impact this growth and help unlock the continent’s full digital potential,” said Kunle.
Kunle has over 22 years of experience working in multiple countries across the continent. He also has a deep understanding and passion for Africa’s growth. He has held several positions at Microsoft, including director of Enterprise Business, Country Manager Microsoft Kenya, as well as director of Small and Medium Corporates, Emerging Markets. Kunle Awosika was also one of three pioneer team members when Microsoft opened its Nigeria office.
He is credited with the introduction of different transformational technology opportunities to a wide range of organizations in both the public and private sectors, enabling them to unlock significant value. Kunle will bring this deep experience in multiple African markets to the new role.
While welcoming him to the new role, Elkabbany said: “With his multifaceted experience of the continent and deep understanding of transformative technology, Kunle Awosika is ideally placed to lead the strategy, investments, and initiatives of Microsoft’s transformation plans for the African continent.”
“I look forward to playing a role in unlocking Africa’s potential as the ATO develops and steers strategic partnerships with governments, international organizations, and partners to accelerate digital transformation agendas and fuel a knowledge-based economy,” Kunle added.
Microsoft Africa Transformation Office
Launched in 2021, the ATO supersedes the continent-wide multi-million dollar Microsoft 4Afrika investment project launched in 2012. In simple terms, the Microsoft ATO is Microsoft’s move to scale out what it did with 4Afrika across the continent. It focuses on enabling growth and fuelling investment in four essential development areas. – Digital infrastructure, skilling, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and start-ups. –
Now, we have a responsibility to play a different role that drives impact at scale, says Wanja Gitonga, Microsoft ATO Communications lead. Reaching millions of Africans and accelerating Africa’s digital transformation to help deliver long-lasting African economic prosperity through digital technologies. The ATO will play an enabling role to accelerate and scale up existing programs within Microsoft, she adds.
Wanja notes that Microsoft is committed to rethinking how and why it develops digital solutions and strategies to better serve the needs of Africa. Through large-scale digital partnerships and initiatives across infrastructure, skilling, SMEs, and startups, we hope to impact the lives of millions of Africans and foster economic prosperity through digital technologies.
Microsoft understands that it cannot achieve these ambitious goals alone. Saying, strategic partnerships with governments, international organizations, multinationals, and African enterprises will accelerate investments in Africa and increase the continent’s export of digital services.
Since its inception, Microsoft Africa Transformation Office has spearheaded a number of initiatives and strategic partnerships across Africa. It announced the launch of Microsoft Startups Founders Hub in Africa and new partnerships with accelerators and incubators to provide startups with access to markets, technical skills, and funding to accelerate the growth of 10,000 African startups over the next five years.
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Ecobank Group is announcing the launch of the 2022 Ecobank Fintech Challenge which offers early-stage and mature startups the potential to partner with Ecobank across 33 African countries. Applications for the fifth edition are open from now until September 16th. The finals and awards ceremony will take place in October 2022.
The challenge welcomes Fintechs that align with the Bank’s strategic objectives. The top winner stands a chance to win a cash prize of US$50,000 and the opportunity to partner and scale their solutions across Ecobank’s 33 African markets. The top ten finalists will also get to join the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship.
Fintech companies and developers originating from any of Africa’s 54 countries, as well as global Africa-centered Fintechs, are eligible to enter the 2022 Ecobank Fintech Challenge.
In addition, all Fellows will qualify to explore the following opportunities with the Bank and its partners:
Multinational products roll out: an opportunity to pursue integration with Ecobank and potentially launch products in all or part of Ecobank’s pan-African 33-country ecosystem.
Service provider partnerships: Ecobank may select some Fintechs as pan-African service partners within the Bank’s ecosystem.
Access to Ecobank’s Pan-African Banking Sandbox. Fellows will get access to Ecobank’s APIs to test and improve their products for the pan-African market.
Priority Access to Ecobank’s Venture Capital partners for funding exploration.
Dr. Tomisin Fashina, Operations and Technology Executive, Ecobank Group said, “The uniqueness of the Challenge is that it welcomes both early stage and mature start-up Fintechs alike and seeks to align them with different kinds of partnership opportunities within Ecobank that match their differing levels of maturity.”
The Ecobank Fintech Fellowship program currently has 46 fellows including 2020 winner Nokwary.
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As part of plans to showcase the talent pool in Africa, Microsoft through its University Recruiting program and Africans at Microsoft is hiring final-year students and recent university graduates from across Africa into full-time engineering roles at Microsoft. The Microsoft African University Recruitment Program for recent graduate engineers will provide successful candidates with relocation to the USA and Canada.
Interested persons who will like to apply should have recently graduated from the university or will be graduating by 2023. Here are the qualifications you will need to meet.
Open to relocating to USA or Canada
Pursuing or recently completed a bachelor’s or master’s degree in engineering, computer science, or related field.
One year of programming experience in an object-oriented language (C, C#, C++, Java, Python).
Ability to demonstrate an understanding of computer science fundamentals, including data structures and algorithms.
Activities that will give you an edge include experience building software outside of the classroom environment like an internship, hackathon, or research project. As well as showing the ability to work in a team and effective time management.
Microsoft started the program in 2017 dubbed Africa to Redmond; Hack for Africa. For its first iteration, Microsoft University Recruiting and Africans at Microsoft selected five universities on the continent to recruit from. University of Nairobi (Kenya), University of Lagos (Nigeria), Ashesi University (Ghana), Makerere University (Uganda), and University of Cape Town (South Africa).
The Microsoft Team is organizing free virtual resume workshops to help interested persons prepare for the application process. Where they will provide information on Microsoft’s recruitment program, share tips on how to make your application stand out, and answer your questions. The free resume workshop will take place at different times depending on your country. Here are a few below:
During the workshop, Microsoft recruiters will share more on the recruitment process. But it usually takes place in three phases and will look something like this. It starts with an online coding challenge. A panel will then review the entries and select applicants for the next stage. The selected candidates will have an in-person or virtual interview. Finally, a successful candidate from the three steps will join Microsoft for a full-time position. The candidate will be assigned to an engineering team once they accept the offer.
Don’t forget to kindly share this opportunity with your friends or anyone this might help so they don’t miss out.
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GitHub announces the availability of GitHub Sponsors in 30 new regions including six located in Africa. The GitHub initiative is now available to open source developers and organizations in Kenya, Gambia, Egypt, South Africa, Tunisia and Morocco. Developers and creators located in these countries can start receiving financial support for their work.
GitHub says there is no waitlist and anyone in these countries with a bank account can sign up right away. All you have to do is to create a GitHub Sponsors profile. Check this post out on how to create a profile. Alternatively, if you were on the waitlist you are now automatically in the program. You should see an email in your inbox welcoming you to the program. Anyone can sponsor, but you must reside in a supported region to receive funds.
we are here to support the humans behind human progress
GitHub Sponsors is an initiative by GitHub that allows anyone who contributes to open source to receive financial support. It is built for funding all types of work that advance open source software. Providing opportunities to participate in and build on open source, either through code, documentation, design, technical writing, mentorship, etc. It also provides a platform for the developer community to financially support the people and organizations who design, build, and maintain the open source projects they depend on, directly on GitHub.
GitHub says financially supporting the people who build and maintain open source is key to ensuring a healthy and sustainable open source ecosystem. The announcement makes the initiative now available in 68 countries or regions.
Through the GitHub Sponsors explore tool, GitHub has made it easy for anyone across the world to discover projects and maintainers and support them.
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