SMEs to enjoy free online services for business expansion

OLUYINKA ALAWODE

A new online hub through which African SMEs will have access to free, relevant products and services to help them expand their businesses will be provided by Microsoft and other partners very soon. In a statement released to announce this, Microsoft Nigeria disclosed that the hub will aggregate the available services that can help business operators improve their businesses locally, find new business opportunities outside their immediate geography, and help increase their overall competitiveness.

To welcome the new users online, Microsoft will provide free domain registration for one year and free tools for qualifying SMEs interested in creating a professional web presence. The hub is expected to open in April, initially in South Africa and Morocco, and will expand to other African markets over time.

Microsoft has also established the Afrika Academy, an education platform leveraging both online and offline learning tools, to help Africans develop both technical and business skills for entrepreneurship and improved employability. Training through the Afrika Academy will be made available starting in March at no cost to recent higher education graduates, government leaders, and the Microsoft partner community. One of the first offline training sessions will take place with Microsoft managed partners in Ivory Coast in the coming months, focusing on capacity building in both business and technical skills for our partners in francophone West Africa.

All these efforts, according to Microsoft, are aimed at accelerating adoption of smart devices, empowering small and medium businesses, and up-leveling skills development to ignite African innovation for the continent and for the world. This initiative called the Microsoft 4Afrika Initiative plans to help place tens of millions of smart devices in the hands of African youths, bring one million African small and medium enterprises (SMEs) online, up-skill 100,000 members of Africa’s existing workforce, and help an additional 100,000 recent graduates develop skills for employability, 75 percent of which Microsoft will help place in jobs.

Fernando de Sousa, general manager, Microsoft 4Afrika Initiative, said, “The world has recognized the promise of Africa, and Microsoft wants to invest in that promise. We want to empower African youth, entrepreneurs, developers and business and civic leaders to turn great ideas into a reality that can help their community, their country, the Continent, and beyond.”

As a first critical step toward increasing the adoption of smart devices, Microsoft and Huawei has introduced the Huawei 4Afrika – a full functionality Windows Phone 8 which will come pre-loaded with select applications designed for Africa. The phone will initially be available in in Nigeria, Angola, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco and South Africa later this month.

The Huawei 4Afrika phone, which is the first in what will be a series of smart devices designed “4Afrika,” will be targeted toward university students, developers and first-time smart phone users to ensure they have affordable access to best-in-class technology to enable them to connect, collaborate, and access markets and opportunities online.

The phone is said to have been created by African developers for African consumers. A subsection of the existing Windows Phone Store will continue to focus on “locally-relevant” apps and content.

“We believe there has never been a better time to invest in Africa and that access to technology -- particularly cloud services and smart devices -- can and will serve as a great accelerator for African competitiveness,” said Jean-Philippe Courtois, President of Microsoft International. “The launch of Windows 8 and many other new products in the coming months represent a New Era for Microsoft Corporation, which we believe will redefine the technology industry globally. These additional investments under the 4Afrika banner will help define our company’s New Era in Africa.”

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is acclaimed the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft is following the lead of Bill Gates, its co-founder by taking more interest in Africa.  Following the lead of co-founder Bill Gates Microsoft is taking more interest in Africa, announcing its 4Afrika Initiative with a stated aim of improving the continent’s global competitiveness.