According to the company one of the goals of the Microsoft 4Afrika Initiative is to accelerate African innovation, ensuring that entrepreneurs continue to grow their businesses and solutions. In turn, they will create jobs, encourage skills development and grow the continent's knowledge economy.
"The world is looking for the next growth pole and Africa is positioned to be exactly that. As investors assess industries and sectors to fund, there is a keen interest in exploring the future multinational companies that will come out of Africa. These are the startups and SMEs of today, which we aim to help grow to their full potential through smart financing," says Fernando de Sousa, General Manager of Africa Initiatives at Microsoft.
Through Microsoft's partnerships with accelerators and innovation hubs - including 88mph and AfriLabs, a pan-Africa hub network which launched a new Microsoft sponsored 'Collaboration Challenge' at DEMO Africa last week