Microsoft is announcing plans to build a new team of data scientists on the ground in Africa to work to improve climate resilience, by setting up AI for Good Labs in Nairobi, Kenya, and Cairo, Egypt. This will be the company’s first global expansion of the AI for Good Lab. The new team will work with local partners to use AI on new climate initiatives.
Currently, statistics show that for every five data scientists in the Global North there is one in the Global South. In Africa the situation is dire and the gap is wider. For every data scientist in Africa, there are 14 in the Global North. This means a gap in the available reliable data to work with. As well as being able to turn them into insights for the decision-makers to use. This is why Microsoft is planning to open AI for Good Labs in Africa to help close that divide.
As world and business leaders gather in Egypt for COP27, Juan Lavista Ferres, Chief Data Scientist, AI for Good, Microsoft, reveals Microsoft’s plans to close the climate data divide in the Global South. The work of the Labs he notes will be informed by the Microsoft Africa AI Innovation Council. Another new establishment by Microsoft in partnership with representatives from African organizations such as the AfDB, and African Climate Foundation.
“We see these days ahead as an opportunity to engage in important discussions and take steps toward solutions. Today we are sharing details about our work to support new climate solutions. By harnessing the power of data and artificial intelligence (AI), with an expansion of our AI for Good Research Lab into Egypt and Kenya.“
Juan Lavista Ferres
“Access to reliable climate data is critical to inform decision-making and avoid the worst effects of climate change“, says Wael El Kabbany, General Manager, Africa Regional Cluster, Microsoft. “We believe these labs will be significant in closing the climate data divide“, he adds.
Microsoft AI for Good Lab
The Microsoft AI for Good Lab consists of data scientists and researchers who use AI, Machine Learning, and statistical modeling to address human challenges. Across the AI for Good program portfolio—Earth, Accessibility, Humanitarian Action, Cultural Heritage, and Health. They work on issues that improve societies and environments with a focus on sustainability.
Juan adds that Microsoft “will work to scale AI for Good projects and support startups in the region to deliver new AI innovations“. Africa-based data scientists will have access to satellite imagery thanks to a partnership between Microsoft and Plant Labs. To address challenges nominated by the Africa AI Innovation Council with a special focus on adaptation and early warning systems.
The new Microsoft AI for Good labs in the region will bring in new jobs as it hires data scientists and researchers with experience in computer vision, statistics, and artificial intelligence.
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MTN Group and Microsoft are announcing a new partnership that will see them support customers across governments and organizations accelerate value creation and drive Africa’s economic growth using Microsoft platform solutions.
The agreement centers on transforming and modernizing MTN’s communications and technology infrastructure together with harnessing capabilities and building the largest and most valuable platform business with a clear focus on Africa.
“We are delighted to be partnering with Microsoft – a company with the strength and scale to complement MTN’s capabilities and to support our Ambition 2025 strategy,” said Group Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer Chika Ekeji. “Together we will use the power of technology and connectivity to innovate and accelerate the digitalization and development of the continent.”
The two companies will develop joint go-to-market plans across the markets where MTN operates. To serve the digital transformation ambitions of African enterprise customers. Microsoft will skill up MTN Group resources to drive focused selling of Microsoft’s products and cloud services in Africa.
“Our valuable, longstanding partnership with MTN will play a pivotal role in Africa’s digital transformation, and we are proud to continue building on that decade-long collaboration with our newest venture. We recognize the potential that Africa holds to stand among the leaders of the digital world, and we are committed to maximizing our partnerships to deliver infrastructure that accelerates this transformation and enables a connected, digital-first continent,” says Samer Abu-Latif, Corporate Vice-President and President of Microsoft Middle East and Africa.
The partnership also includes ongoing knowledge-sharing, innovation, and growth opportunities. Joint initiatives will be in areas such as digital education, micro-SME digitization, fintech, and gaming. To create shared value and extend digital and financial inclusion across Africa.
“Our partnership with MTN will empower and enable the future growth of Africa through the joint development of innovative solutions; a dedicated focus on digital skilling and education; robust go-to-market strategy transformation; and the advancement of SMMEs and industries to compete on the global digital stage”
The parties will also execute a carrier agreement that will position MTN as a major provider of terrestrial connectivity to support Microsoft’s Africa-based expansion plans.
The companies believe that digital transformation presents an opportunity for the continent to leap ahead and benefit from widespread socio-economic growth. Particularly when leveraging the power of the cloud.
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Dynamics 365 and Power Platform services are now generally available in the Mircosoft Africa datacentres. The Microsoft Business Applications will provide organizations with solutions to cut costs, improve efficiencies, drive business continuity and disaster recovery. The services are available in the Microsoft South Africa North and West datacentre regions located in Johannesburg and Cape Town respectively.
Dynamics 365 and Power Platform services feature the ability to rapidly store, analyze, and act on data with intelligent software. While maintaining data residency and sovereignty and meeting compliance and regulatory requirements.
Microsoft notes the continued upgrade of services shows its commitment to investing in Africa. As well as increasing cloud capacity and capabilities to enable organizations in the public and private sectors in the region to accelerate growth through innovation, agility, and resilience.
“Leaders in organizations across industries and sectors are focused on finding ways to improve the flow of innovation and knowledge across the business in order to respond to market changes, customer needs, and specific business and industry challenges at speed. They need digital solutions that break existing silos between data sources, people, processes, and insights,” says Karin Jones, Director of Business Applications GTM at Microsoft South Africa.
“This will accelerate digital innovation in the country by enabling businesses to become more agile, resilient, and competitive,” says Jones.
With this Microsoft now offers Azure, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and Power Platform online services to organizations in the region.
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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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