Tech giant HP Africa has revealed it’s rolling out several initiatives aimed at helping entrepreneurial women succeed on the African continent.
The move comes as the company has continued to bridge the gap between technology and education and rolled out several programmes including the HP Life Centre, the Young Leaders Programme and emphasised the importance of 4IR in relation to entrepreneurship on the continent.
Elisabeth Moreno, vice president and managing director, HP Africa, said 4IR is a developing environment in which disruptive technologies and trends such as the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics and artificial intelligence are changing the way people live, study and work.
Moreno added that the rise of digital adoption represents tremendous potential for inclusive growth across Africa.
“The continent’s burgeoning youth population, which is expected to grow by more than 50% by 2050, presents a significant opportunity to create a demographic dividend, unlocking further investment in digital infrastructure and creating a more robust and inclusive workforce,” she noted.
She explained that as new tools and technologies are developed, financial services can be provided with greater speed, accountability and efficiency. “These tools are helping segments of society and industries that are traditionally under-served in Africa: the micro-retail sector, the agriculture sector, the education sector, and female entrepreneurs,” Moreno pointed out.
Moreno said HP has already started to provide young entrepreneurs training, mentoring and access to facilities through the HP Life Centre, a programme of the HP Foundation.
“In collaboration with institutions such as the Ekurhuleni West TVET College in Katlehong and its Centre of Entrepreneurship Rapid Incubator, HP opened the HP Life Centre in South Africa in 2018, a technology-enabled hub to facilitate learning, collaboration and entrepreneurship in a physical, face-to-face setting,” she said.
“Last year, we partnered with UN Women executive director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and we signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to expand digital learning opportunities for women and girls in five priority countries namely South Africa, Senegal, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Morocco.”
According to Moreno, this collaboration between UN Women and HP builds a model of partnership where equipment and entrepreneurial online learning courses are offered in digital classrooms to more than 5,000 women under UN Women’s Second Chance Education Initiative with financial support from BHP Foundation. “It will also leverage UN Women’s African Girls Can Code initiative, a joint programme of the African Union Commission, UN Women and the International Telecommunication Union,” she explained.