by Sylvester Addo | Feb 6, 2017 | Microsoft, Microsoft Ghana
Microsoft Ghana partners with the Data Protection Commission of Ghana for this years World privacy day. At the event Mr. Derek Appiah Ghana Country Manager, Microsoft mentioned NGO’s and Non Profits can benefit from the Microsoft’s Cloud for public good initiative.
This years Worlds’ Privacy and Data Protection day event in Ghana was on Ghana’s Digital Transformation journey. Mr. Appiah speaking during the Keynote said Digital transformation enables you to engage your customers, transform your products, empower your employees and optimize your operation.
Microsoft is committed to Ghana’s digital transformation journey through the development of cloud technology. Microsoft is working in partnership with relevant public and private stakeholders to create a framework for cloud computing which will be essential for businesses, organizations, governments and citizens.
Digital transformation enables you to engage your customers, transform your products, empower your employees and optimize your operation.
Microsoft is committed to creating a cloud for good structure that enables the people of Ghana to achieve more. We will work with the public and private sectors to continue designing a roadmap that is dedicated to preserving values that are timeless, universal but most importantly help the people feel safe, have confidence that the rights and protections that have long preserved the privacy of the personal information they commit to paper, remains in place as their information moves to the cloud.
Cloud computing is more advantageous as it’s more scalable and efficient. Business need to only have access to the internet to access cloud services. With cloud computing, small businesses get the advantages of big businesses without incurring the costs of a big business as they pay for what they use. It means that you pay as you use. This brings down the cost of doing business, which means that you can actually give value to more people.
Talking about the Public Cloud for Public Good initiative, he said qualifying NGO’s and Non profits will receive renewable Microsoft Azure credits. Microsoft under it’s philanthropies division is giving out one billion dollars in cloud computing resources to 70,000 non-profits and NGOs worldwide.
Visit Microsoft Philanthropy page to sign up and for more information on qualification or Check this out here (office for Non-Profits)
by Sylvester Addo | Sep 30, 2016 | Biz4Afrika, Microsoft Africa, Microsoft Ghana
Microsoft Ghana has partnered with Tigo Business (Tigo Ghana), Lenovo Africa, ITWORX and ZEPTO. The partnership is to empower small and medium enterprise businesses in Ghana. Through the Tigo Business SME Empowerment Roadshow program.
Photo Credit : ModernGhana.com
Tigo Ghana’s enterprise division, Tigo Business is taking with it a host of partners on it’s SME Empowerment Roadshow. They get joined by Microsoft Ghana, Lenovo Africa, ITWORX and ZEPTO. Each partner will contribute a package to make small to medium enterprises benefit from the program.
Microsoft Ghana will contribute through it’s Biz4Afrika initiative. Biz4Afrika is an online hub for African small and medium enterprises under the Microsoft 4Afrika program.
Biz4Afrika is an Africa-wide network of SMEs designed to enable a sustainable and connected community of entrepreneurs that will have a meaningful impact on job creation, global competitiveness and wealth creation in the long run.
Mr. Derek Appiah, Country Manager for Microsoft in Ghana on the partnership said;
Microsoft’s goal is to enable SME’s in Africa to start, grow and accelerate their businesses through affordable access to technology, world-class skills and innovation.
We aim to help this sector sustain their growth, reach their full potential and turn their ideas into reality via initiatives such as Biz4Afrika – an online hub for SMEs in Africa
Modern Ghana shares on how the partnership will work,
The partnership brings together an ecosystem of business solution providers ranging from content, connectivity, devices, software and financial expertise to help businesses build solid processes at world class standards and give them a competitive edge both locally and in the sub-region.
Each partner brings an array of expertise to the table. Microsoft will provide access to email, domain names, and basic book keeping tools under the Office 365 services. Through its subsidiary partners; ITworx, will provide a rich portfolio of enterprise productivity solutions, while Zepto will provide tablets with keyboards for easy use in stores, POS terminals and software solutions specifically designed for the enterprise space by ITWorx.
To register to be part of the program, visit the TIGO BUSINESS EMPOWERMENT ROADSHOW
Source: Modern Ghana
by Sylvester Addo | Sep 15, 2016 | Developer, Events, General, Microsoft Ghana
Microsoft Certified Trainers Summit 2016 event is taking place on each continent around the world and the Africa meet up is scheduled to take place in Accra, Ghana.
Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) events are the best opportunities to interact with other trainers. You can learn a new technical skill, how to teach a specific course or technology. You can also learn how to become a better trainer.
The Ghana event is the second in the sub region to be organized by the International Association of Microsoft Certified Trainers (IAMCT). The summits take place in a country on each continent. 2016 Summit hosts are US, Germany, Australia and Ghana.
MCT Summit Africa 2016 is a community event. It is organized and produced by a team of MCT’s for their peers. It’s an event open to Microsoft Certified Trainers, Microsoft Certified Professionals, Information Technology Trainers, Students and all Individuals with a passion for Microsoft operating system, technologies and solutions.
MCT events are a great opportunity for MCT’s to interact and engage directly with Microsoft. Come learn about the future of Microsoft learning, the MCT Program, how to teach a specific course or technology, or how to improve your trainer skills.
MCT Summit Africa 2016 will take place at the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, November 25th, 2016 in Accra, Ghana. It’ll also feature a tour to a slave trade castle on the 26th, November. On 24th November there’ll be an MCT’s meet and greet at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel.
The theme for the event is “KNOWING – the Cloud and Modern Workplace”. Speakers of the event will cover Office 365, SharePoint, Skype for Business, Windows Server 2016,Operating system deployment and other Microsoft Technologies.
Visit the MCT summit Africa 2016 event page to register, for speaker list event schedule.
More Info: MCT Summit Africa
by Sylvester Addo | Aug 29, 2016 | Events, General, Microsoft Ghana
As part of activities to mark this years International youth Day, World Vision hosted a YouthSpark Conference.
Photo Credit : TizaaWorks
World Vision, new implementing partners of Tizaaworks held an event to mark International Youth Day in Accra, Ghana. TizaaWorks is a Microsoft YouthSpark and Microsoft 4Afrika Initiative introduced by Microsoft Ghana.
TizaaWorks is an online platform for employability and entrepreneurship. It helps equip young graduates and school-leavers with the right employable skills to prepare them for the job market. That’s hard and soft skills to bridge the skills gap and secure first-time job opportunities. It also provides career guidance and resources for those wanting to build their businesses. The platform offers information on personality assessment, virtual interviews, CV writing, business idea pitching, writing cover letters, job vacancies and free online courses.
The YouthSpark conference featured a presentation on the Sustainable Development Goals, a training on entrepreneurship, poetry, choreography and music. Here are some pictures from the event.
The TizaaWorks online platform offerings include:
* Plan your career – career counselling, job market info and stats
* Get trained – mentor matching, IT training, entrepreneurship, CV writing, soft & language skills
* Find a job – job matching tool Entrepreneurs – Start-up training, funding tools, social entrepreneurship and freelance opportunities.
* Get engaged – Community-based networking platform for users to share ideas and volunteer opportunities
Follow Tizaaworks on social sites Facebook, Twitter: @TizaaWork, Website: Tizaaworks
More Info: TizaaWorks
by Sylvester Addo | Jul 21, 2016 | 4Afrika, Events, General, Microsoft Africa, Microsoft Ghana, Microsoft Nigeria
Microsoft held it’s annual Worldwide Partners Conference in Toronto, Canada this month. The event is held yearly to appreciate the efforts of it’s partners in delivering Microsoft Services around the world.
Microsoft Partners in Africa have ben honoured locally and internationally by the Microsoft teams in Africa and Redmond. There was the Worldwide Partners Conference and the Hounouring Our Partners Awards ceremony held in Lagos.
“These partners and their award nominations were truly exceptional, and their accomplishments should be viewed as examples of excellence for every Microsoft partner. Their achievements have enabled clients to perform sufficiently and have given a unique level of autonomy to businesses that was just not possible before,” says Amr Kamel, General Manager (acting) for Microsoft WECA.
Of the many Microsoft Partners around the world 6 of them operating in Africa received recognition. These were honoured as the country Partner of the year at the Worldwide Partner Conference 2016;
- Softnet (Country Partner of The Year – Burkina Faso)
SOFTNET has been working with Microsoft in improving the e-gov project with the EPG team. They also worked with the EPG team in the SIGU project.
- INOVA (Country Partner of The Year – Côte d’Ivoire)
INOVA specialized in software development, system integration, networking infrastructure and Training. INOVA have been a Microsoft Certified Partner and training center (CPLS) since 2004. They are the first gold partner in The Cloud productivity in Cote d’Ivoire.
- Business Connexion Namibia (Pty) Ltd. (Country Partner of The Year – Namibia)
Business Connexion Namibia (Pty) Ltd continuously use Microsoft platform products and solutions to build innovation ICT solutions for their customers. Partners such as Business Connexion play a vital role in growing Microsoft’s footprint in countries such as Namibia through their focus Microsoft approach.
- Signal Alliance (Country Partner of The Year – Nigeria)
Signal Alliance are the most Cloud Competent partner in the ecosystem, accomplishing 1 Gold Cloud and 2 silver competencies this year. In FY16 they displayed a high level of commitment to our Cloud Transformation Journey, which is evident in their performance till date.
- Dimension Data (Country Partner of The Year – Rwanda)
Through consistent and strategic customer Engagement, Dimension Data have been able to “win over Rwanda as a country”. Working together with Microsoft, Dimension Data closed the 1st ever full Cloud banking deal in Rwanda, Bank of Kigali. Dimension Data is currently also engaged in the deployment of Office 365 Edu at the ministry of Education. A large transformative project that will impact millions of students.
- FTF (Country Partner of The Year – Senegal)
FTF is a solutions provider in complementary areas of computing covering cloud services, the design and the implementation of Basic Infrastructure services, infrastructure services supporting productivity, infrastructure services supporting the application platform, security, training, and support.
- Dimension Data (Country Partner of The Year – Tanzania)
Dimension Data has shown key strengths in understanding the Tanzania market therefore selecting strategically which sectors to play in. Dimension Data has been able to achieve significant progress in positioning additional products like share point.
At the Honouring Our Partner Awards ceremony the following companies received awards;
Microsoft West, East and Central Africa (WECA) also rewarded their Microsoft Partners for excellence in specific competencies:
- Techno Brain (Kenya) for application development
- eSolutions Consulting (Ghana) for cloud packaged solutions and education
- Dimension Data Solutions (Kenya) for communications and cloud productivity
- The Cloud Factory EMEA (Mauritius) received the data platform award as well as the data analytics award along with Currimjee Informatics (Mauritius)
- Full Technologies Formations (Senegal) received an award for hybrid cloud and infrastructure
- M-KOPA Solar (Kenya) received the Internet of Things (IoT) award
- ComputerPride (Kenya) got the learning award
- M2M Systems (Kenya) received the small and midmarket cloud solutions award
- Inova Solutions got the Windows and devices deployment award
- Elytis (Mauritius) was named distributor of the Year
- Eclectics International (Kenya) received the Microsoft Dynamics Industry award
- Novabase (Mozambique) received the government award
The Microsoft 4Afrika team received a special award for their contributions in upskilling interns and facilitating the MySkills4Afrika volunteer programme to bring skills from across Microsoft into Africa.
Finally, VeriPark received the General Manager Award for their partnership with Microsoft in developing products that drive great service and meet customers’ business needs.
Source: Microsoft Africa
by Sylvester Addo | Jun 1, 2016 | 4Afrika, Developer, General, Hour of Code, Microsoft Africa, Microsoft Ghana
Young Female Coders from Ghana, other African nations and the Middle East share their experiences on coding and how they are making what is next.
In the video below 12 ladies share what’s it’s been like for them in a field mostly associated with the masculine gender. Selasi Gborgla and Nana Akosua Attuah from Ghana also speak on the subject.
A study suggest;
Computer code written by women has a higher approval rating than that written by men – but only if their gender is not identifiable, new research suggests. BBC Technology
Microsoft is committed to supporting many young girls, until “a coder” is not “a he” anymore.
Source: Microsoft
