Global software developer Microsoft Corporation on Wednesday launched the Microsoft 4Afrika Initiative to engage in Africa’s economic development and assist in improving the continent’s global competitiveness.

The company indicated that it planned, through the initiative, to assist in handing tens of millions of smart devices to African youth, bring one-million African small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) online, up-skill 100 000 members of Africa’s existing workforce and help 100 000 recent graduates develop skills for employability by 2016.

“The world has recognised 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.

“The Microsoft 4Afrika Initiative is built on the dual beliefs that technology can accelerate growth in Africa, and Africa can also accelerate technology for the world,” Microsoft 4Afrika Initiative GM Fernando de Sousa said.

To increase the adoption of smart devices, Microsoft and telecommunications network solutions provider Huawei Technologies were introducing the Huawei 4Afrika, a Windows Phone 8 that would come preloaded with select applications designed for Africa. The phone would be available in Angola, Egypt, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa later this month.

To improve technology access, Microsoft would deploy a pilot project with the Kenyan Ministry of Information and Communications and Kenyan Internet services provider Indigo Telecom to deliver low-cost, high-speed, wireless broadband and create new opportunities for commerce, education, healthcare and the delivery of government services across Kenya.

Microsoft indicated that it aimed to implement similar pilot projects in East and Southern Africa in the coming months.

To empower African SMEs, an online hub that offered access to free, relevant products and services from Microsoft and other partners would also be launched. The hub was expected to open in South Africa and Morocco in April, initially, and then expand to other African markets over time.

Further, to accelerate capacity building and skills development, Microsoft established the Afrika Academy, an education platform leveraging online and offline learning tools to assist Africans to develop technical and business skills for entrepreneurship and improved employability.

Training at the Afrika Academy would start in March at no cost to recent higher education graduates, government leaders and the Microsoft partner community.

As part of the Microsoft 4Afrika Initiative, Microsoft, together with its African partners, also recently initiated various other efforts, including the AppFactory centres in South Africa and Egypt to which the public can submit requests for Africa-relevant Windows applications; Nokia and Windows phone-user training in Kenya and Nigeria; as well as a women-empowerment portal in North Africa that would be launched in March.

“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. These additional investments under the 4Afrika banner will help define our company’s new era in Africa,” Microsoft International president Jean-Philippe Courtois said.