The collaboration seeks to play a significant role in closing the tech skills gap in Africa, fostering job creation, entrepreneurship, and empowering the continent’s youth with in-demand digital skills.
Through the partnership, Microsoft and Gebeya aim to upskill 300,000 developers across eight countries over the next three years, including Kenya, South Africa, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Nigeria, Egypt and Mozambique.
Applications will open in January 2024 to candidates with backgrounds in tech development and computer science and who have a keen interest in building solutions in the cloud.
This latest initiative will build on existing collaboration between Microsoft and Gebeya. In 2020, the two companies partnered together to launch the first virtual SkillsLab in Ethiopia. The SkillsLab, which was launched to develop digital skills and coding capabilities among university graduates, provided apprentice-based training to over 1,200 African software engineers.
Over the past seven years, Gebeya has developed a proven track record in implementing upskilling and talent matching programmes in Africa and now aims to scale its impact by partnering with Microsoft.
“Our partnership with Microsoft represents a monumental step towards realizing the full potential of Africa’s talent. Through comprehensive upskilling and certification, we are creating job opportunities and technopreneurs (tech entrepreneurs) to pave the way for Africa’s youth to shape the digital economy’s future,” said Amadou Daffe, CEO of Gebeya.
Microsoft has had a presence in Africa for almost 30 years and has played a key role in helping to build the continent’s digital capacity through various skilling and employability programmes, with more than 4 million young people across the continent upskilled over the last five years.
