Orange Middle East and Africa and Smart Africa join forces to foster entrepreneurship and sustainable jobs for youth in Africa
Date: 2023-10-18
The Smart Africa Alliance and Orange Middle East and Africa have signed a
three-year agreement aimed at supporting the development of the African continent’s
digitization through advocacy, knowledge sharing and assessing government digital
maturity to accelerate Africa’s digital transformation and the creation of
sustainable jobs for Africans.
Orange and Smart Africa are two major
institutions, one recognized for its commitment towards digital inclusion and
its knowledge in the innovation field, and the other one, empowered by a bold
and innovative commitment by African Heads of State to accelerate sustainable
socio-economic development on the continent.
Both organizations will collaborate in
activities such as training for the youth and women to support their
employability in new digital professions. This will be done through their
digital skills development programs namely Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA)
and the Orange Digital Center (ODC) network, present in 16 countries in Africa
and the Middle East and 6 European countries.
They will also work together in enhancing
innovative entrepreneurship by strengthening incubation, acceleration, and
financing capacities for entrepreneurs in priority sectors such as:
environment, e-agriculture, e-health, e-commerce, etc.
Both the Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA) and
the Orange Digital Center (ODC) are dedicated to offering digital skills
training to diverse audiences.
Orange Digital Center (ODC) brings together in a
same physical structure a set of free programs open to all, ranging from
digital training for young people and support for entrepreneurship to
acceleration and investment in startups.
Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA) is the
driving vehicle for implementing Smart Africa’s digital skills initiatives,
aiming to empower African citizens to embrace digital transformation and equip
them to innovate and compete on a global scale.
Through their programs, the two organizations
will work together to encourage the creation of innovative digital solutions to
respond to local challenges and thus contribute to the sustainable development
of the continent.
Commenting
on the agreement, the CEO of Smart Africa Alliance, Lacina Kone said “Empowering African citizens, young people
especially, to equip them for the jobs of the future has been key to our
digital transformation efforts. Joining efforts with Orange will expedite our
collective efforts in this regard.”
On his part, the CEO of Orange Middle East and Africa, Jerome Henique stated “This partnership will contribute to the objective shared between Smart Africa and Orange namely to develop the digital skills of the African youth, especially women, while supporting innovative entrepreneurship. This is part of our commitment to actively contribute to the digital transformation of the continent.”
