Microsoft invited female developers in Kenya and Nigeria to participate in the Microsoft LEAP Hackathon 2019 event. An initiative of the newly launched Microsoft Africa Development center. The all-female event seeks to strengthen the place of women in technology. A four day program combining traditional classroom learning with hands on projects.
In Nigeria 30 female developers were selected from about 170 who successfully applied to participate in the event. Nelly Tadi from Abuja state was one of the 30 selected female developers. She shares with us her experience of the Microsoft LEAP Hackathon. For Nelly it was a learning curve. Learning new technologies and tools, practicing how to use them and working with a team.
“I got a forwarded message from a friend on WhatsApp and actually ignored it at first. I later went back to it, clicked on the link and started to fill the form on my phone.” She mentions almost giving up as there was a quiz section in the form where she had to write code and the phone wouldn’t allow. She however had the urge to continue because she found the quiz challenging, intriguing and wanted to solve it. “So I picked up my laptop, entered the link and started the quiz again.”
Learning
“Having once participated in a hackathon event in school – Bingham University – I thought it was going to be coding throughout. We had trainings for the first two days and then the Hackathon for the remaining two days of the event. To be honest before this I had never heard about Azure, Microsoft teams and DevOps.”
Participants were taken through
writing maintainable and testable code. Learning about DevOps, Azure,
machine learning studio, virtual machines, Azure AI and other Microsoft
technologies and tools.
“The mentors were really patient with us. Going over the same thing again and again just to ensure that we were learning. The organizers, mentors were all so friendly and easy going. The atmosphere there was enough to give anybody the confidence to ask questions and learn. We hosted our web app on azure and also did a machine learning project on it with the free credit given to us. So yeah, it wasn’t just about the training, it was great because i actually got to practically use these tools.”
Hacking with Team 5X at the Microsoft LEAP Hackathon
During the hackathon Nelly Tadi was put in Team 5X. A team that saw her becoming friends with Busola Okeowo, Catherine John, Mary Olohitare Belo and Hope Oluwalolope. Learning the valuable lesson of working in a team. Nelly says “I’m so glad we learnt to understand ourselves. If not i’m quite sure we wouldn’t have been able to come up with a good project not to talk more of winning. I was really excited about winning.”
Nelly’s Team 5X won the Microsoft
LEAP Hackathon with a solution they named AGRIFY. A platform that connects buyers, sellers and transporters of good and
quality farm produce.
“We created a solution based on a real life problem. Our idea was a product called AGRIFY. Agrify is a platform to connect buyers and sellers of farm produce and also ensure delivery of good quality farm products. We used machine learning to determine quality of farm produce and built the web application with PHP Laravel. During the training we were taught how to host web apps on azure so we implemented that knowledge by hosting our demo app on https://agrify.azurewebsites.net.
Nelly Tadi lives in Abuja and is the founder of Why Code. An organization training young people in different aspects of IT. She shares “we are currently working on introducing coding clubs to schools, running summer schools and other training events. I intend to continue to pursue this dream and also keep learning more about programming and improving my skills.”
Chris Lwanga, Microsoft Senior Director, Software Partnership shared Microsoft’s desire to empower Africa’s youth, developers and startups to excel. He shared this as a keynote speaker at MEST Africa Summit 2019 and MEST Africa Challenge in Nairobi, Kenya.
Speaking to the audience he highlighted the need to focus on the youth and empower them to make an impact. Chris says “Microsoft’s doors are open to students, developers and startups”, an iteration of projects like Head Start.
Microsoft also led sessions on Digital Transformation, Artificial Intelligence and expounded on the Microsoft cloud.
OZE(Ghana), Snode Technologies(South Africa) and Wayawaya Ltd(Kenya) tied to win the MEST Africa Challenge. They will each receive $50K in equity investment from MEST Africa and $25K in credit from Microsoft.
Microsoft announces its 2019 Partner of the Year Award Winners and finalists from about 3000 nominations from 115 countries. We bring you winning African partner organization building new and innovative solutions for customers using Microsoft technologies. These winners will be recognized in July at Microsoft Inspire 2019, set to take place July 14-18 in Las Vegas.
There are fewer African country winners compared to 2018. This year saw eight Microsoft partner organizations in Africa winning compared to nine the previous year. It also had the same companies retaining winning country partner positions. Senegal didn’t record any partner winner this year.
Kenya Partner, winner in Global award category
Cloud Productivity Solutions Limited, Kenya are the only winners in any of the global award categories. They won the global category for Teamwork. Cloud Productivity Solutions Limited are also winners in the country partner of the year category. Microsoft says they focused on helping customers realize the broad power of communication and collaboration. Delivering Office 365 services that let customers take advantage of Microsoft Teams to manage employee collaboration across files, chat and meetings, automated business processes, etc.
Meet the 2019 Microsoft Partner of the Year Africa Award Winners country category
Côte d’Ivoire Partner of the Year INOVA Consulting Services
Egypt Partner of the Year HITS Technologies
Kenya Partner of the Year Cloud Productivity Solutions Limited
Morocco Partner of the Year CASANET
Namibia Partner of the Year Salt Essential IT
South Africa Partner of the Year Mint Management Technologies
Tunisia Partner of the Year Neoledge
Uganda Partner of the Year Britehouse / Dimension Data
Nigeria Partner of the Year Wragby Business Solutions and Technologies Ltd
Amrote Abdella Microsoft Regional Director shares on Microsoft investing in Africa’s technology space.
Microsoft’s Africa Development Center [ADC] is an opportunity to hire and give exposure to young engineers coming out of universities. An opportunity to work side by side with Microsoft engineers building latest technologies. Amrote Abdella Microsoft Regional Director 4Afrika shares with hosts of The Morning Show, Arise News, Nigeria.
In the interview she says the announcement of the datacenters and ADC is with the premise of how we [Microsoft] build skills and allow Africa be part of tech space in terms of Microsoft products. We believe Africa has a huge role to play in the tech space she says. Given how long we’ve been on the continent, we really believe it is Africa’s time to be part of the core development of technology not just consumption.
On skills development she says the IFC report on digital skills shows that by 2030, 230 million digital skills and jobs will have to be created. Microsoft is working with universities, creating the opportunity for right training through curriculum contributions.
Microsoft is also working on a bridge to the work force through its internship program. Amrote shares that the Interns4Afrika program discovers, trains, identifies and places graduates with Microsoft’s 12,000 plus partner ecosystem. This she remarks allows for a small medium enterprise to grow their business because they don’t have the resources. Giving the young graduate the opportunity to grow.
Microsoft officially launched the Lagos Africa Development Center site at an event in Nigeria. The Lagos team will develop Azure services that power new Augmented Reality experiences for Microsoft’s mixed-reality platform. An investment that will enable digital transformation to create sustained societal impact in Africa says Microsoft.
Presidential Visit
Earlier in the day, Microsoft Nigeria Country manager Akin Banuso led the visiting Microsoft executives to meet with Nigerian Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo.
Today, I received a delegation from the Microsoft Corporation led by Phil Spencer, the Executive Vice-President of Gaming. pic.twitter.com/ph9tvMeivi
Phil Spencer, Microsoft Executive Vice President of Gaming leading the visiting executives told the vice president about the project. He said Microsoft’s investments are an ambition on the African continent to create a global centre for excellence and development.
Lagos Africa Development Center launch event
Later at the launch event, Nigeria country Manager, Akin Banuso said “our teams will help build products with global impact. We will work with local partners and customers to improve our products for the continent and beyond. This is part of our commitment to creating opportunities for every person. It is what makes Microsoft what it is.”
Microsoft executives at the launch event included Alex Kipman, Michael Fortin and Phil Spencer. It also had other Microsoft engineers and members of the new team in Lagos.
“We have chosen Kenya and Nigeria, as they present a strategic opportunity for us to better understand a continent that is rapidly adopting cloud technology and massive innovation at the intelligent edge.” Michael Fortin, Corporate Vice President, Windows
Alex Kipman
I am incredibly proud that Africa, the cradle of civilization, now has the opportunity to define the future of computing. I’m inspired by all the creativity and energy of the startups and entrepreneurs here in Lagos, Nigeria. Microsoft will be engaging deeply with developers and universities amongst others. – Alex Kipman
Meet the founding Microsoft ADC cognition team in Lagos Nigeria.
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Today at a media event in Nairobi, Microsoft executives introduced a special development in Kenya. But more importantly for the African continent as a whole. Microsoft launched its first Development Centre in Africa; the Africa Development Centre.
It will have two initial team sites located in Nairobi, Kenya and Lagos, Nigeria. The Africa Development Centre(ADC) sites become the seventh and eighth Microsoft development centres sites globally. Microsoft’s other development centres sites are located in China, India, Israel, Vancouver, Boston and Silicon Valley in San Francisco.
Our new Microsoft Africa Development Center will be at the forefront of building innovative solutions that benefit Africa − and the entire world. – Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO
Microsoft ADC
Microsoft says the;
“ADC will serve as a premier centre of engineering for Microsoft. Where world class African talent can create solutions for local and global impact“.
Microsoft’s Executive Vice President Gaming, Phil Spencer will be the executive sponsor of the Africa Development Center. Speaking at the launch event he said “We are listening more than we are speaking. We want your input and feedback on what we need to do in order to help the market here succeed. We are committed for the long term, to be in partnership with you in helping us grow. Incredible market with amazing talent the universities are putting out“.
He shares this about the project;
“The ADC will be unlike any other existing investment on the continent. It will help us better listen to our customers, develop locally and scale for global impact. Beyond that, it’s an opportunity to engage further with partners, academia, governments and developers – driving impact in sectors important to the continent, such as FinTech, AgriTech and OffGrid energy.” – Phil Spencer
ADC Investment
The ADC will have two teams, the Microsoft Cognition team and the Microsoft Windows Team. With the Congnition team based in Lagos, Nigeria and the Windows team in Nairobi, kenya.
Microsoft is marking a new milestone with this investment in Africa. A $100 million combined expected investment of infrastructure and employment of local qualified engineers. Microsoft will recruit world class African Software Engineers to the sites. Learn how to be part of the Africa Development Center. The development centre website is still under construction and yet to publish new roles.
On what the teams will be doing, Microsoft shares these details.
“Our Microsoft Cognition team and Windows’ team will be kickstarting our ADC efforts, focusing on AI-enabled cloud services, mixed reality experiences and rich applications that power the intelligent edge without disruption.”
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