Microsoft will be empowering about two thousand micro, small and medium-sized businesses at Techpoint SME Clinic this year.
4Afrika, Microsoft’s business and market development engine in Africa, is supporting the training of small businesses on ways to automate their business processes and use technology to scale. Techpoint SME Clinic is scheduled to take place in Lagos, Nigeria on 29th February 2020.
Microsoft shares, it is partnering with Techpoint as their SME clinic vision aligns with the 4Afrika vision. That is “to turn today’s ideas from Africa through the power of technology into solutions“. The company will provide SMEs with digital transformation, scalability and sustainability opportunities.
Amongst others, the SMEs will learn; how to take a business online the right way. How to market products and services online and how to get loans and funding for business.
Head of Strategic Partnerships at Microsoft 4Afrika, Soromfe Uzomah notes SMEs are most in need of six things. Access to finance, markets, affordable technology, information and skills and services. These he says are essential for their scalability and sustainability.
“Together with our partners, we provide SMEs access to all of these. Through initiatives such as Microsoft for Startups, MySkills4Afrika, Microsoft Virtual Academy, Biz4Afrika and Interns 4Afrika. On our educational platforms, our training content is tailored to suit the different growth stages of an SME.”
Microsoft says the 4Afrika initiative has reached 1.7 million small and medium businesses and supported more than 300 startups.
Do you run an SME in Nigeria? Click to register and learn how to accelerate your business in 2020 with the power of technology.
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Google announces fund to support online safety in Africa.
Marking World Safer Internet Day Google though its philanthropy arm is launching a one million USD pan-African fund. To help in promoting online safety and keeping children safe online. To achieve this, google will empower social enterprises and non profits with project ideas focused on digital literacy and online safety.
Google also launched a children online literacy program, Be Internet Awesome initiative in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. It will work with partners to teach kids how to be safe, confident explorers of the online world.
The company announced this in a statement on its Africa social media page.
“Today we are launching Be Internet Awesome in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa. We will be working with our partners across the region to teach kids how to be safe, confident explorers of the online world. To help in promoting online safety, @Googleorg will be launching a $1M fund. Will be open to nonprofits to work on project that is focused on keeping children safe online.“
Google notes the core of its Be Internet Awesome initiative is working as a unit with parents, children and educators. On the ground rules that keep them safe online.
“Be Internet Awesome” is designed to help children practice smart tactics for analyzing and evaluating information, sharing media with caution, protecting and securing private data, and handling cyberbullying, for example.
Google is currently receiving an expression of interest from organizations who will like to access in the grant.
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Delivering on a promise, Google announces the launch of its first Developer Space on the African continent. The space similar to the Microsoft Reactor will serve developers, entrepreneurs and startups across Africa. It will be based in Lagos, Nigeria and co-located and in partnership with Impact Hub.
In 2017, then Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai visited Nigeria and made a number of promises. These include extending the Google digital skills training program, from one million to ten million people. Providing one hundred thousand Africans with mobile developer training. The Launchpad Accelerator Africa program and a space to house its efforts in Nigeria.
Google says the Developer Space will provide a hub where entrepreneurs, developers, mentors, VCs and investors can connect and collaborate. The hub will also house the Google Launchpad Accelerator Africa program.
Onajite Emerhor, Head of Operations Launchpad Accelerator Africa, Google, says this about the space.
Starting today, members of the African tech community can use this Space for free. In addition to housing Google Launchpad Accelerator Africa, the Space will support developer meetups, training, experts office hours, Women in tech events, Startup programs (outside of Launchpad), partner events that support the wider entrepreneur and developer ecosystem, as well as Google initiatives for empowering people through digital skills training.
Africa’s startup ecosystem is growing and we’re looking forward to working with startups and other players in the ecosystem from across the continent at the Space, continues Onajite.
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Women-led startups are only receiving 2% of all venture capital funding. A trend that needs to change if we are to achieve diversity in business. Muhammad Nabil, Partners and Startups Strategy Lead at Microsoft 4Afrika tackles the topic of diversity and what is needed to encourage more women to start businesses. As well as why investors need to take bigger bets on women-led startups.
Africa’s technology startup scene is vibrant – and growing fast. There are currently over 640 active technology hubs across the continent, and according to Partech Africa, startups raised $1.163 billion raised in equity funding in 2018 – a 108% year-on-year growth. Topping the list are fintech start-ups, who raised$132.75 million in 2018 – enjoying 39.7 percent of all funding.
Despite this momentum, however, there’s a concerning trend: Globally, women-led startups only receive two percent of all venture capital (VC) funding – and the picture within enterprise tech is dimmer. Additionally, of all startups, only 22 percent are founded by at least one woman. Africa-specific data is lacking, but sources suggest only nine percent of start-ups have women-leaders, and female-led South African start-ups receive only 4.5 percent of all funding.
Women-led startups are in short supply. And, where they are available, they often lack the investor backing to scale. The result is a significant loss of insight, perspectives, development and solutions, which affects us all.
African tech startups are renowned for building solutions to some of the most complex challenges. N-Frnds brings the power of digital to subsistence and small hold farmers in Africa and other emerging markets, via mobile. The N-Frnds mobile system, which started in Rwanda and since expanded dramatically, is text/sms-based and connects users without the need for data. Users receive vital crop and market information and get access to finance. Small hold farmers account for 80% of all food consumed in Africa, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa estimates. Giving these farmers access to increased market opportunities establishes them as micro-enterprises, which is where the majority of economic upliftment and job opportunities still reside.
Technology like this is set to completely redefine the
way we interact with the world. But if technology is only being created by a
portion of the population, how effective will it really be? Without the input
and contribution of women, how many challenges and opportunities will go
unnoticed, or only partially met?
Innovation needs diversity
Microsoft recently partnered with Sehat Kahani, a tele-health
start-up founded by two women, Dr. Iffat Zafar and Dr. Sara Khurram, in
Pakistan. As doctors themselves, they noticed a recurring “doctor-bride” trend,
where only 23 percent of female medical graduates in Pakistan become registered
physicians. The others either move abroad, or stop practicing after marriage due
to socio-cultural pressures and household responsibilities. Yet, Pakistan is in
desperate need of doctors, with a doctor-patient ratio of 1:1200.
Sehat Kahani developed a platform that pairs these female
physicians with patients in need of healthcare. Patients receive affordable and
quality care virtually using tele-medicine, while female physicians are able to
remain active, working at home on their own hours to effectively balance family
life.
If it weren’t for these two women entrepreneurs, this challenge,
opportunity and approach could have been missed entirely.
Diversity is better for business
Investors recognise the need for diversity in the long-run, which makes the lack of early-stage funding for female startups perplexing. Studies show that startups with at least one female founder raise, over time, 21 percent more VC funding than companies with all-male teams. Similarly, research also shows that if women and men participate equally as entrepreneurs, global GDP could rise by approximately three to six percent.
Diversity in business doesn’t just yield better
innovation, but better financial results too, as mixed teams are better able to
recognise and capitalize on market opportunities.
So, the question becomes: What is needed to encourage
more women to start businesses, and investors to take bigger bets on them
earlier?
Firstly, female entrepreneurs need to be given equal access to the tools needed to succeed as their male peers, including access to finance, technology, markets, information, skills and services. Second, and as a partial solve to the first, investing in diversity starts with having a diverse team of investors. Startup mentors, investors, pitch competition judges and all ecosystem players should come from diverse backgrounds, able to recognise, relate to and see the potential in different challenges and opportunities.
Last year’s Africa Seedstars Summit had a dedicated focus on female entrepreneurship, which is a positive step forward. However, the focus should not be on women-only initiatives or women-specific conversations alone, but on initiatives and conversations centered around all start-ups, where women are considered and treated as equals. Diversity and Inclusion are not an initiative, they’re a lifestyle.
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Making sure your resources are highly skilled, is what Microsoft executive, Kunle Awosika, notes will drive innovation in Africa. He made the remark addressing over three hundred delegates. Representing CIOs, CISOs, CTOs, heads of IT, etc. in the banking and financial industry from across East Africa. At the second Africa BFSI Innovation Summit 2020 in Nairobi, Kenya.
Kunle Awosika, Small, Medium and Corporates Lead, Multi-Cluster Countries at Microsoft, shared insights on empowering digital transformation in the financial services industry (FSI). How these organizations can use emerging technologies to create better services and be agile. Microsoft is playing a big part in the evolution of industries he notes. Driving efficiency, automation and performance in financial services.
Skills is a critical part …
One of the challenges we are facing in Africa and within our region is this particular focus area of skills. He shares talking about the skills gap in our market. We see this as we engage our customers and partners. This is the biggest problem to driving innovation today within the banking sector, financial industry and many of the industries that we work in. Skills concern is the right of passage for you to move to the next level. We need to make sure our resources are highly skilled, this is what drives innovation at the end of the day.
Microsoft at Africa BFSI Innovation Summit
https://youtu.be/gxxwuunO7gE
Microsoft has been working through various learning platforms and partnerships to bridge the skills gap in the region.
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The second cohort of the Microsoft LEAP Apprenticeship program gets underway in Nigeria. With ten ladies from across Nigeria selected for the second edition of the program. The initiative is to increases diversity by training more women into software engineering roles.
The ladies will undergo four weeks of classroom and labs training in Software engineering. Followed by twelve weeks of hands-on project sessions with Microsoft Partner Wragby Technologies. Where they will work with mentors on projects.
Microsoft notes, ladies from the Microsoft LEAP Apprenticeship program first cohort have completed their training and are all full-time employees at Tek Expert.
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