Microsoft, an American multinational technology company, is working more closely with the African Development Bank’s Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Banks (YEIB) Initiative to help young entrepreneurs in Africa.
Through its African Transformation Office (ATO), the company will work with the bank to create ecosystems for young entrepreneurs, jobs, and a much bigger impact in Africa through digital inclusion. By 2050, the continent’s youthful population is projected to double, reaching 830 million people. Although 10 to 12 million young people enter the labour field annually across the continent, only slightly more than 3 million jobs are generated, leaving many individuals without employment. Youth entrepreneurship will help a lot with the job problem, but there are still a lot of problems to solve, like a lack of investment, cheap access to capital, and bad company development services.
Wael Elkabbany, general manager of Microsoft Africa Regional Cluster, says that by working with the African Development Bank, “much can be done to help foster youth entrepreneurship, driving greater economic inclusion for this key segment of the population, and ultimately building a more prosperous society.”
“We’ve already seen significant success working together on programs like Coding for Employment, which sets out to generate over 9 million jobs and reach 32 million adolescents and women throughout Africa in only 10 years,” the speaker continues.
Solomon Quaynor, vice president of the African Development Bank for the private sector, infrastructure, and industrialization, says, “Strengthening our partnership with Microsoft on the Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Banks (YEIB) is an important step on our way to harnessing Africa’s demographic dividend and helping to create millions of jobs for young Africans by 2025.”
This initiative emphasizes that young people are starting businesses, which is essential to meeting our ambitious employment goals. Using a public-private partnership model, the partnership aims to help build national institutions that will give young entrepreneurs more technical and financial support and help them improve their skills.
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AFDB creates YEIB to help young entrepreneurs
The African Development Bank created the Youth Entrepreneurial Investment Bank as a unique value proposition that combines and anchors work to create African entrepreneurship ecosystems. Through this project, the bank will bring together the necessary financial and non-financial parties and partners so that they can do what they need to do to help young entrepreneurs through mentoring, coaching, sharing of knowledge and experience, and other means.
The Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Bank will establish a funding scheme, a credit guarantee scheme, and technical assistance programs to strengthen providers of services to entrepreneurs. In terms of policy support, it will try to get governments to make the changes to the business-friendly environment needed to encourage young people to start their own businesses. Microsoft will use its partner ecosystem, which includes 54 African countries, to make important technological improvements in four important areas. These include endpoint devices, networking, small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), digitalization, and skilling.
Skilling:
The collaboration will give young people learning materials and career paths to help them get jobs and learn skills that will help them find jobs. This involves using already-established e-learning tools like Coding for Employment. Through the development of trainers, the project also intends to strengthen the ability of enterprise services organizations to assist young people.
Connectivity:
Using popular ways to connect, like Microsoft Airband, the alliance will create efficient infrastructure models that will help close the digital gap. It will also help other cutting-edge products on the market through direct or indirect investments.
Digitization of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (SMEs):
By providing access to selected learning materials, certifications, business solutions, business skills, and specialized digital skills, the alliance also seeks to increase SME digital literacy and business capabilities. This will be promoted through skill-building initiatives like MS Learn and the Cloud Academy and a relationship with LinkedIn. Microsoft agreements will also make financing easier for SMEs with digital capabilities.
Endpoint gadgets:
Microsoft and its partners will develop SME access to packaged endpoint solutions. Additionally, Microsoft technology will be more affordable for SMEs. The relationship plays a significant role in Microsoft ATO’s aim to empower 10 million SMEs with access to skills programs and investments and build the infrastructure necessary to expand and educate 30 million Africans in digital skills.
Microsoft ATO express gratitude for Microsoft services in Africa
Angela Kyerematen-Jimoh, Strategic Partnerships Lead, Microsoft ATO, says, “We’re excited about the potential of this collaboration to magnify the work Microsoft is doing around digital inclusion in Africa.” The digital economy is an important part of creating new, innovative businesses that can give young Africans jobs that will last. The more we can ensure budding young entrepreneurs are given every opportunity to participate in the digital economy, the closer we get to building a more prosperous future for everyone. “
