Microsoft is expanding its Surface devices market in Africa as it opens a new market in Egypt. The company is officially launching Surface Pro 7, Surface Laptop Go and Surface Go 2 for organizations in Egypt. This will increase the Surface market in Africa to two with South Africa being the only other market.
We are pleased to share the next step in our journey to support organizations and businesses says Mirna Arif, Country Manager, Microsoft Egypt, with the introduction of Surface Pro 7+, Surface Laptop Go and Surface Go 2.
It comes as no surprise to see Egypt become a market this quick as Mirna was the immediate Surface Business Group Director for the Middle East and Africa. It will be interesting to see the adaptation and growth of the devices in Egypt.
There is no immediate mention of prices. Microsoft says you can make an order for the devices through authorized device partners in Egypt. Alternatively, you can register your interest and find out more about the devices through Microsoft Certified Distributor, Redington Egypt.
Finn Morris, Surface Business Group Director at Microsoft Middle East and Africa notes, “We’re excited to introduce Surface products to the Egyptian market. Offering a new, Windows-powered alternative in the devices segment that balances security, aesthetics, speed and versatility.”
The announced Surface devices are currently heavily on discount across various markets and I will expect these to be as well. Microsoft also recently hosted an event to announce a new generation of Surface devices. The Surface Pro 8, Surface Duo 2, Surface Go 3, Surface Laptop Studio and Surface Pro X. I expect these new devices to be available to the Egypt market next year.
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Microsoft is announcing its partner of the year award winners and here is a list of winning organizations in Africa. The announcement comes ahead of Microsoft Inspire 2021 where it will celebrate exemplary achievements from across its global partner ecosystem. Microsoft Inspire 2021 partner event, is set to take place July 14-15 as a free global digital event.
Microsoft uses the partner award to recognize outstanding accomplishments within its partner community. This year, the company received over four thousand entries from one hundred and thirty countries across fifty-six categories. Microsoft introduced a new category, the Social Impact Award which includes awards for Community Response, Inclusion Changemaker, and Sustainability Changemaker.
Ten partner organizations emerge as award winners in 2021. Cloud Productivity Solutions, Kenya is the only winner from last year to win this year as well. Ghana recorded an award winner for the second year in a row. Senegal for the third year in a row failed to register an award winner. Côte d’Ivoire is back with a winner after failing to register an award winner in 2020. Namibia failed to register a winner this year.
Below are Microsoft Partner Africa winners from the country and region category.
At Microsoft, we believe our partners make more possible. That’s why we recognize exceptional partner contributions.
Microsoft Partner Africa Award Winners country category
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Dynamics 365 Business Central the Microsoft business management solution for small and mid-sized organizations (SMBs) is coming to Africa and the Middle East. The solution will launch in Kenya, Nigeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, and Lebanon over this month.
Dynamics 365 Business Central lets SMBs automate and streamline their business operations. By connecting their financials, sales, services, shipping, manufacturing, project management, operations and more to improve customer interactions.
Maher Al-Khaiyat, Regional Business Applications Director for Microsoft MEA Emerging Markets, says what businesses get with Business Central is an end-to-end view of their operations. With built-in intelligence when and where they need it. He notes that the application is easy to tailor and extend to meet any unique business or industry-specific needs.
“With digital transformation now a necessity, SMBs are seeking cost-effective, streamlined systems that will make their transition seamless. Multiple, disconnected systems are now easily combined under one secure, centralised application. Using Dynamics 365 Business Central, efficiency is boosted through automated tasks and workflows. All from within familiar Office tools like Outlook, Word, and Excel.”
Maher Al-Khaiyat
The new solution will launch in Kenya, Nigeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, and Lebanon over this month AL-Khaiyat adds.
Business Central is easy to integrate with applications like payroll, banking apps, or custom APIs. It has the same consistent and secure experience across all devices no matter where teams are accessing the application from.
SMEs will be able to deploy Dynamics 365 Business Central in either the cloud, on-premise, or with a hybrid approach. No matter the requirements for data residency, compliance, or security, companies can run their business wherever and however needed.
Business Central was previously known as Dynamics NAV. The solution is now a SaaS and comes in the Dynamics 365 suite.
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The Egypt Ministry of Justice’s (MOJ) Economic Courts (EC) will be able to provide quicker and more accessible justice to Egyptians using the Microsoft Dynamics 365 based digital justice platform. This is a collaboration between the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), Microsoft Egypt and local Microsoft partner, Link Development.
Egypt’s EC is a specialized court that focuses on resolving economic and commercial disputes. Entrusted with serving citizens and safeguarding local and foreign investments in Egypt. The EC is the first judicial body to take a full digitalization leap to boost the justice system’s performance and improve the county’s worldwide bank ranking.
Based on D365, Link Development has delivered a flagship digital justice platform with a powerful backend that automates and integrates end-to-end judiciary processes and services. Including legal case filing, assignment, scheduling, distribution, transfers, management, and others.
Through an integrated online portal, citizens, lawyers, and legal case stakeholders can register, e-file new cases, follow up on cases’ progress, set appointments, receive judges’ decisions, make e-payments, and more.
“Automating Egypt’s Economic Courts is part of the government’s digitalization strategy to create a more productive and transparent justice system that citizens and investors can rely on“. Says, Counselor Ahmed Khairy, Assistant Minister of Justice, Egypt Economic Courts. It’s a national project driven by his excellency Abd El Fatah Al Sisi’s directives to realize Egypt’s 2030 vision. We are happy with the measurable performance improvements delivered by the digital justice platform since its launch. We are very impressed too with Link Development for facilitating our digital transformation”, he adds.
Mirna Aref, General Manager, Microsoft Egypt: “We believe that Egypt Economic Courts’ Digital Justice Platform is a key milestone in accelerating digital transformation across the judiciary system in Egypt. The digital justice platform will empower EEC’s and the Ministry of Justice to serve justice with greater efficiency and transparency, in an integrated, secure and intelligent way. At Microsoft, we stand ready to partner with government entities in Egypt to promote the adoption of digital services across all sectors, enabling a competitive digital economy in line with Egypt Vision 2030. We trust that our partners, such as Link Development, can achieve more success stories in driving the government’s digital transformation.”
“We are honored to cooperate with Egypt’s Economic Courts“, says Joseph Sameh, Business Solutions, General Manager, Link Development. He adds, “The automation, customization, and integration of such a matrix of mission-critical judicial processes and legal case practices have been an invigorating mission. We will continue to enrich the D365 e-justice platform and put our resources, knowledge, and expertise to help Egypt’s Economic Courts achieve their digital vision and growth.”
The first phase of digitalization of the Economic Courts was launched during Cairo ICT 2020. The fresh milestone includes the roll-out of new e-services and tools.
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Microsoft is announcing it has helped over 30 million people in 249 countries and territories acquire digital skills. Out of this, over one million learners across Africa participated in the Microsoft Global Skills program.
The global skills initiative offers free online courses across Microsoft, LinkedIn, and GitHub learning platforms. It seeks to help people, mostly those affected by the pandemic gain in-demand skills to be employable.
Across the Middle East and Africa region, 2.1 million learners have participated in the program. With software development, customer service, project manager and data analysis being the popular learning paths among learners.
The top 10 countries with learners across Africa are South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco, Kenya, Tunisia, Algeria, Ghana, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Comoros, Sao tome and Principe, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Seychelles and the Central African Republic are countries with less than 500 learners.
To get more Africans to acquire digital skills, Microsoft is also partnering with organizations and governments. Offering additional funding and services to make this possible where this is necessary.
Microsoft is extending the free LinkedIn Learning and Microsoft Learn courses and low-cost certifications that align to 10 of the most in-demand jobs offer through 2021.
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The initiative will will focus on training women and girls in software development, product design, product management, data science and AI engineering, and cybersecurity.
The Women Techsters initiative is opened to girls and women aged 16 to 40 years in the 54 African Countries. However, the program is launching in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Egypt and South Africa. With plans to scale the initiative to girls and women in more African countries later.
The training will be delivered through a series of simultaneous activities such as; bootcamps, open days, masterclasses and fellowships.
Microsoft says the program has been developed in such a way that participants will not only learn and develop deep technical skills. But they can fill knowledge gaps, learn coding skills and jumpstart their careers.
Prior to the launch, Microsoft piloted the initiative with Tech4dev in Nigeria called the Nigeria Women Techsters. Fatima Ahmed a participant in the Tech4Dev Nigerian Women Techsters program says; I thought I was just coming to learn new skills and go back to apply for jobs. But during the training, I started getting job opportunities. Today, I work as a technical support engineer at Tek Experts, where I provide cloud-based solutions. I am glad I took a bold step to come for the Nigerian Women Techsters training.Read more about her experience and what to expect here.
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