Africa has been on the tech spotlight recently. We have seen Google building an AI Research Centre in Ghana, Huawei establishing an ICT Academy in Uganda, and most recently, Microsoft setting up Africa Development centers in Kenya and Nigeria. Some multinationals even organize pitch competitions, mentorship programs, and seed investments for both new and established startups. These multinationals support the digitization of communities, businesses, startups and youths through several initiatives for skills development, innovations and job creation.
The developments in Africa tech ecosystem can be seen as a move to make Africa the next tech hub in a few years’ time. CISCO has been investing in education through its Network Academy (NetAcad) initiative, launched more than 20 years back. Students are trained with digital skills to prepare for digital careers.
See also: Microsoft Set to Launch $100 Million African Development Center
Over the years, they have successfully trained close to 700,000 students across Africa and plans to train a total of 1 million additional youths by 2025. The company has been deliberate in training youths. Last year, they opened the first CISCO EDGE (Experience, Design, Go-to-market, and Earn) Incubation Center, to help train and develop small and medium businesses.
The centers would foster collaborative technology, training and enablement programs. They intend to establish Digital Learning hubs in public libraries for the local populace and identify job opportunities for NetAcad students and alumni.
CISCO has also announced plans to launch a Repair Partner program. Their vision is to enable small and medium businesses to grow by helping them list among world-class technology. Through the Repair Partner program, CISCO will establish centers to carry out testing, quality engineering, process management, and inventory control. Selected distributors will repair CISCO hardware, fight counterfeit, boost sales and serve customers across Africa.
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