Microsoft and COMESA sign MoU on ‘4Afrika Initiative’
Microsoft in partnership with the Common Marketplace for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) announced the launch of its 4Afrika Initiative that will focus on 3 main areas: World-Class skills, Access and Innovation in order to empower youth, entrepreneurs, developers and business leaders to turn ideas into reality on the continent and beyond.
The 4Afrika Initiative is a collaboration created to promote access to technology to COMESA’s member countries and will be based on a secure cloud platform. It seeks to bring out ideas or low-cost but high-speed connectivity and help them get adopted fast by users.
Business technology has revolutionized the way countries and firms do business, we are in an age where the planning processes of organizations is through instruments and solutions that promote quality management, and respond to age-old constraints of time limitations and high costs of operations, COMESA Secretary General Sindiso Ngwenya said at the MoU signing, according to a release from Microsoft.
The 4Afrika Initiative is also set to promote the respect of Intellectual Property. It will be a tool to promote eGovernance methods that simplify the way governments run investments and trade in the region, to save time and money, while boosting economic development.
Antony Cook, Associate General Counsel, Legal and Corporate Affairs Microsoft Middle East and Africa, added “Through this collaboration we will bring policy makers and businesses together and empower them to take advantage of cloud-first, mobile-first world. With the right policies in place people will be encouraged to use cloud technology, develop their own IP and participate in trade and ecommerce across borders. With innovative eGovernment services, citizens and businesses will benefit from safe online transactions, open borders, efficiency and increased foreign investment.”
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