Partnering to accelerate African innovation

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By Leila Charfi, Director, Innovation Partnerships, Africa Initiatives

What do we mean when we say we see boundless potential in the people of Africa? To be boundless is to be limitless. Abundant. Infinite. To have potential is to have qualities and abilities that can be developed; that can lead to future successes. To have boundless potential must then be to have abundant abilities and endless opportunities for development.

Unfortunately, in Africa, opportunities for development are not endless. At least not yet. There is limitless talent, but more opportunities are still needed to develop it. Being on the continent for over 20 years, Microsoft is very familiar with Africa’s inherent talent and through our 4Afrika Initiative, we’re helping to ensure that Africa can continue to grow and create its own opportunities.

Today, at DEMO Africa, we unveiled a new commitment to support startups under the 4Afrika banner by entering into cooperation agreements with innovation hubs CcHub in Nigeria, DTBi in Tanzania and AfriLabs – a pan-African hub network spanning Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia. Through these cooperations, we’re giving their communities access to:

  • Microsoft BizSpark memberships for startups
  • Business networking
  • Capital investment opportunities
  • Events and workshops on the latest Microsoft technologies for developers
  • The 4Afrika Internship and Volunteer programs, providing access to Microsoft mentors and experts as additional resources

In short, we’ll be a catalyst for young innovators to have much easier access to the tools and resources they need to fully develop their ideas. This builds upon our existing agreements with Kenya’s iHub and m:lab which were announced in March. As Eric Hersman, founder and manager of iHub said, “Microsoft is clearly a brand that developers and startups want to engage with and this cooperation enables us to provide tech community members with great programs that can help them develop innovative new software products, establish their businesses and reach new markets”.

It also builds on our news from last week, when we announced the expansion of the Microsoft Ventures partnership program into Africa, with 88mph as our first African accelerator partner. Microsoft Ventures is our global effort to offer the tools, resources, expertise and routes to market for startups, through partnerships with accelerators around the world.

I can imagine no better backdrop for this great momentum than DEMO Africa, which is built on the premise that startups in Africa are developing real-world solutions and are worthy of investment and global attention. As platinum sponsor, we’re partnering with fantastic organisations in Africa to get these startups seen and turn their ideas into realities. We don’t just want to encourage African innovation, we want to help accelerate it. And to do this, we’re providing each DEMO Africa finalist with free access to our global BizSpark program, which provides them with software, support, visibility and a community of mentors. 

To have boundless potential means to have no boundaries to success. These cooperations are a strategic and crucial opportunity to help remove these boundaries and extend our support broadly to the African continent. Because when we say we see boundless potential in the people of Africa, we mean it. In every sense of the word.