Smart Africa partners with Gebeya to promote capacity
building and stimulate private sector growth
Nairobi, Kenya: Tuesday 2nd May 2017 – Smart Africa and Gebeya
Inc., one of Africa’s premiere software development companies, have signed a
partnership agreement that will see the two organizations collaborate to stimulate
private sector growth and entrepreneurship on the continent. While one of Smart
Africa’s cornerstones is encouraging development of smart cities, complimentary
to this, one of Gebeya’s main goals is to fuel technology advancement in Africa
through training and capacity building. Collectively, both organizations
believe that specialized technology training implemented at local levels will
organically cultivate and increase the caliber of African human capacity.
The
partnership aims to fuel three of Smart Africa’s flagship initiatives
including: Smart Africa ICT Industry Development, Smart Africa Digital Literacy,
and Smart Africa Digital Economy.
Under these initiatives,
Gebeya will work with Smart Africa to ensure that the continent becomes more of
a technology solutions producer, that the continent becomes more technology
cultured and literate, and to help African countries connect more efficiently
at infrastructural levels by further developing the digital economy on the
continent.
The ICT Literacy initiative
is expected to produce significant continental benefits including:
- Increased
African workforce efficiency and productivity.
- Realization
of knowledge based economies across the continent due to proliferation of human
capacity.
- Facilitation
of e-Government, e-Learning, and e-Commerce.
- Increased
attraction of foreign investment into the technology sector.
- Increased
opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship.
- Increased
demand for IT products.
Aiming to make Africa the most digital literate continent by 2018, this
initiative aims to support and utilize training institutions, to develop its IT
active population; as well as to stimulate Public Private Partnerships (PPP), improving
development between continental governments, promoting private training and research
institutions. Gebeya and Smart Africa will also establish a Scholarship Fund under
this initiative to encourage and support those who cannot afford the full price
of Gebeya tuition. 50% of this fund will be designated for women applicants.
To solidify the beginning of this partnership, Mr. Amadou Daffe, CEO of Gebeya Inc.
will be speaking on the Digital Talent panel at this years “Transform Africa
Summit 2017.”
Speaking about the
partnership, Mr. Amadou Daffe, said: “We as Gebeya are pleased to partner with
an organization such as Smart Africa to support the growth of IT skill building
in Africa and its digital inclusion in the world economy. Along with Smart
Africa’s initiatives being alignment with our core objectives, this partnership
will subsequently position Gebeya to contribute to the Smart Africa member
state agendas as they implement technology solutions and products across
the continent.”
Smart Africa Digital Economy initiative is focused on supporting the
development of technological solutions that support the financial, business,
healthcare, and educational sector needs of the continent. Gebeya will reinforce
this by training and providing qualified professionals to develop and implement
these solutions.
Speaking about the partnership, Dr. Hamadoun Toure, Executive Director, Smart
Africa, said: “Capacity building and innovation are among enablers that Smart
Africa has identified to support our five pillars in the quest to contribute
towards Economic Growth and Job creation, which remains the ultimate goal of
the Smart Africa Manifesto. Our partnership with Gebeya is thus a step towards
achieving this goal with the company having already positioned itself as a
premiere software development company and a marketplace for top IT talent
across the continent.”
Editor’s notes
About Gebeya
Gebeya (which translates to “marketplace” in Amharic) seeks to build
a-self-sustainable ecosystem that trains, hires and incubates the best of
African talent
For businesses, Gebeya offers unique access to a pool of talent unmatched on
any other platform that will help them get their project built right and on
budget. For IT professionals, Gebeya allows them to target their skills and
expertise to the businesses that need them while getting compensated at top
market rates and avails an opportunity for untrained IT enthusiasts, to learn
more about professional programming through a unique world class training
academy where trainees learn through project based training.
To learn more about Gebeya, visit: www.gebeya.com
About Smart Africa
The Smart Africa Initiative was created on the basis of connecting, innovating
and transforming Africa so as to create a knowledge economy that can result to
global competitiveness and job creation.
Smart Africa also aims at making member states’ economies more attractive to
large scale ICT investors by making them competitive, responsive to market
needs and provide more room for innovation.
• The Transform Africa Summit held in Kigali, Rwanda on 28th-31st October 2013
culminated in the adoption of the Smart Africa Manifesto document by 7 African
Heads of States in which they committed to provide leadership in accelerating
socio-economic development through ICT’s.
• On 30th-31st January 2014, The SMART Africa Manifesto was endorsed by all
Heads of State and Government of the African Union at the 22nd Ordinary Session
of the Assembly of the African Union in Addis Ababa.
• The SMART Africa has 5 pillars which reflect the 5 principles of the Smart
Africa Manifesto. These pillars are (1) Policy, (2) Access, (3) e-Government,
(4) Private Sector/Entrepreneurship and (5) Sustainable Development.
• Currently, the Alliance is a partnership bringing together all African
countries adhering to the Manifesto represented by the AU, the ITU, World Bank,
AfDB, ECA, the GSMA, ICANN and the Private Sector.
• Besides its initial membership, other organizations and countries sharing the
same vision, interests and goals are admitted to the Alliance.
For more information, please contact:
GEBEYA
SMARTAFRICA
Name:
Merkeb Mengistu
Email:
merkeb@gebeya.com
Website:
www.gebeya.com
