Microsoft to announce incubation partnerships at DEMO Africa

DEMO Africa is one of the continent’s biggest startup events, so it tends to attract the odd news announcement from big players and investors. The latest will see Microsoft announcing a series of partnerships with a number of African incubators.

According to the tech giant, it has inked strategic cooperation agreements with three incubator organisations across the continent, namely:CcHub in Nigeria, DTBi in Tanzania and AfriLabs — the pan-African hub network.

It adds that these agreements, which have been signed under the 4Afrika Initiative, are designed to further its commitment to accelerating SME growth and local innovation.

The agreements will apparently form part of 4Afrika’s ongoing commitment to help accelerate African innovation. By cooperating with the different hubs, Microsoft will provide SMEs, innovators and Africa’s developer community with increased access to software, opportunities for skills development and international outreach, enabling them to grow their skills and build businesses with Microsoft technologies.

In an official blog post, Microsoft says that the cooperation aims to offer the communities working in these hubs increased access to software, skills development opportunities and a means “through which innovative startups can access capital investment, benefit from international outreach and scale their businesses to the world through Microsoft’s cloud computing solutions”.

Microsoft claims that it will work with each organisation to:

• Support the startup community with Microsoft BizSpark memberships and access to business networking and capital investment opportunities. BizSpark is a global program that helps startups grow into successful businesses through software support and a vibrant ecosystem that delivers exceptional business advantage.
• Enable developers to access the latest events and workshops on Microsoft’s newest development technologies through relevant community events.
• Provide Microsoft devices, including Windows Phones and Windows-based tablets, for testing applications and other software developed by the local IT communities.
• Enable them to benefit from the 4Afrika Internship program, which will provide them access to the pool of talent graduating as 4Afrika interns as potential hires for their own facilities.
• Enable them to benefit from the 4Afrika Volunteer program, which will provide them with access to the pool of Microsoft employees volunteering in Africa as visiting trainers and mentors at their own facilities.

Additionally the AfriLabs partnership will apparently support the development of sustainable and scalable working environments across the continent, such as technology hubs and incubation centers, to stimulate entrepreneurship and support African startups.

“Microsoft will work with AfriLabs to help startups working in these hubs become successful technology companies driving innovation, employability, competitiveness and growth in Africa,” it says.