The African Union Development Agency NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD) and Microsoft Africa recently re-launched the 100,000 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Academy training platform.  A free online platform dedicated to African realities and African entrepreneurs, available in English, French, Hausa, Igbo, Amharic, and Yoruba, offering more than 200 courses in various topics from Digital Literacy, Business compliance, Microsoft packages to Business presentation skills, while establishing networks for support and incubation to bolster their success. This marks another milestone in the partnership between the two groups supporting the domestic African private sector.

The Academy is part of a comprehensive effort to address some of the most pressing issues African micro, small, and medium business owners face. Access to suitable financing, to market, and upskilling opportunities. This initiative will become a central, one-stop-shop for MSMEs to access tailored support intuitively and seamlessly in their business journey.

 “Africa is ideally placed to take hold of the incredible prospects presented by this rapid (digital) transformation, but we must deliver the digital skills needed to seize the opportunity before us.”  said Ms Ola Williams, Country Manager, Microsoft Nigeria & Ghana, representing Microsoft at the Academy launch event in April 2022. Further commenting on the partnership, she added that “Microsoft shares AUDA-NEPAD’s goal of contributing towards decent employment for Africa’s youth by supporting sustainable youth-owned MSMEs. Together, we provide access to digital content that helps Micro, Small and Medium enterprises transform their businesses for greater growth.”

This Initiative contributes to the “100 000 MSMEs Initiative” which results from multilateral, cross-sector, and country partnerships, to accelerate a coordinated and tangible set of responses to the challenge of job creation on the continent.

Speaking at the Academy launch, Ms Fati N’zi-Hassane, head of AUDA-NEPAD’s Human Capital and Institutional Development Division reiterated the AUDA-NEPAD’s commitment to the initiative and specifically confirmed its support in developing content for the MSME Academy. “The heart of economic activity and prospects for meaningful opportunity on the continent is driven by MSMEs. The AUDA-NEPAD is deeply convinced that Africa structural transformation will be driven by youth and women led businesses and innovations.  So far, through this platform, we have been able to officially launch this Initiative in 13 Member States, reaching out to more than 3 million participants and we look forward to celebrating the participants who will successfully go through this training programmes.”

The MSME Academy, jointly built by the AUDA-NEPAD and Microsoft, has made great strides and aims to address four (4) binding constraints:

• Capacity and Training: The MSME Academy aims to empower MSMEs with access to critical capabilities that limit their access to growth and finance.
• Access to Market: The MSME Market Place will support MSMEs with access to new markets and growth opportunities.
• A $750bn Financing Gap for MSMEs on the continent: The MSME Finance system will create partnerships to provide diversified, adapted, and direct finance to MSMEs and risk mitigation options.
• Insights and Evidence: Working alongside platform members and partners, we collect quantitative and qualitative data from MSMEs across all AU 55 member States. This information is helping to build more insightful collective intelligence and translate it into policy advisory to the Member States. For example, we are notably seeing more excellent knowledge on public procurement and investment use, harmonization of policy frameworks across the region, and insights on targeted education and social policy innovations.