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Empowering
Since the launch of their continent-wide 4Afrika initiative three years ago, Microsoft continues to expand its presence in the take a closer look at African economy. how the technology giant is moving forward.
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icrosoft launched the SQL Server 2016 platform locally in South Africa on April 8th 2016, and launched its latest OS, Windows 10, in July 2015, with
several rounds of updates already rolled out. With more than half of South Africa’s SMEs using cloudbased systems to connect their employees, the country and the continent are already seeing the benefits of the company’s infrastructure investment.
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Microsoft’s efforts in South Africa have traditionally focused on expanding their business software and providing their latest products. Since 1992, the company’s Europe, Middle East and Africa division has had subsidiaries and operations in Pretoria, while the corporation established AppFactories and SME Online Hubs in South Africa during their major expansion into the continent’s markets in 2013. It has also provided affordable smartphones tailored specifi cally for Africa in their partnership with the Chinese multinational Huawei. Other key programs have included Microsoft 4Afrika, which has been improving internet connectivity across the continent by providing Africa-focused apps and even providing broadband via unused ‘white space’ in TV frequencies. Meanwhile, while numerous SMEs have adopted Microsoft products and systems, the company has stated that its goal is to double its South African
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“With more than half of South Africa’s SMEs using cloud-based systems to connect their employees, the country and the continent are already seeing the benefits of the company’s infrastructure investment
THE FUTURE
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business by 2025. Windows mobile phones have also outsold the iPhone in South Africa since 2014, part of a larger shift away from Apple products seen worldwide. The expansion is not strictly profit-focused, too. On the 22nd of September this year Microsoft South Africa launched #MSwomen as part of its larger efforts to empower and inspire women entering the maledominated tech industries in South Africa.
No better time
In February 2013, while launching Microsoft 4Afrika, the president of Microsoft International, JeanPhilippe Courtois, said ‘there has never been a better time to invest in Africa’. Microsoft is not simply expanding its reach and its business into a large, relatively untapped market. It is attempting to bring Africa up to speed with the digital age. Upon her appointment in 2015, Microsoft 4Afrika’s regional director Amrote Abdella stated that, ‘at Microsoft,
“Microsoft is not simply expanding its reach and its business into a large, relatively untapped market. It is attempting to bring Africa up to speed with the digital age
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our initiative is to empower every person and organisation on the planet to do more. The 4Afrika initiative is perfectly aligned to accelerate this for the African continent through locally relevant innovation, affordable access and skills development.’ The initiative’s innovations are in use with nearly 273,000 SMEs and the project has expanded to encompass nine innovation hubs. Microsoft is catering to the urgent requirements of rapidly growing African economies, providing skills investments, innovation support and access provision. The corporation provides streamlining of data costs to SMEs that may not have the capital to invest in IT infrastructure and aims to improve youth empowerment, skills development and establishment of digital curricula to optimise the continent’s digital awakening.
Truly interconnected
Since 2014 Microsoft has been striving to deliver cloud computing-based services to everyone in South Africa, aiming to get the service onto every device to provide a truly interconnected environment for users and businesses to flourish. The corporation continues to aim to provide its ever-evolving suite of services to African consumers and to assist in the development of urban and rural areas through programs like Microsoft CityNext and the ongoing Microsoft 4Afrika.
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ICT INNOVATE FOR SUCCESS
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In addition, as former South Africa MD and current General Manager for the Middle East and African emerging regions Mteto Nyati says, ‘Africa is a very important initiative for us. The corporation has asked me to create a people plan for Microsoft in Africa.’ He emphasises that the corporation’s plans for the continent are still developing. ‘Right now, we need to go from country to country to understand the growth we are looking for.’ Africa is approaching one billion mobile subscriptions, growth fuelled by prices of less than $100 a unit. Universal access to fast broadband in Africa is still some
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“The corporation is both positioning itself to empower people and businesses and to shape the future of Africa’s adolescent digital landscape way away – even in South Africa broadband and internet access are still not universal. ‘The world has recognised the promise of Africa, and Microsoft wants to invest in that promise,’ said 4Afrika’s general manager Fernando De Sousa in 2013. Microsoft’s operations in South Africa and across the continent as a whole are good
business. The corporation is both positioning itself to empower people and businesses and to shape the future of Africa’s adolescent digital landscape. Microsoft’s efforts in this field have been profitable and, in the words of Jean-Philippe Courtois, ‘serve[d] as a great accelerator for African competitiveness.’ Microsoft is involved in a new era of African history.
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