Under the aegis of its recently established Africa Transformation Office (ATO), the global Information Technology (IT) giant, Microsoft, in March 2022, graciously announced new initiatives to accelerate the growth of 10,000 African start-ups and fast-track investment on the continent’s ecosystem over the next five years.

Microsoft’s recently launched global Founders Hub will now be available to African start-ups through the ATO.

It’s noteworthy the Founders Hub is a self-service venture that provides start-ups with a wide range of resources, including access to mentors, skilling content, tools like Microsoft Azure and GitHub, and go-to-market and business support.

Microsoft is also creating new partnerships with accelerators and incubators across Africa, including Grindstone, Greenhouse, FlapMax and Seedstars to provide industry-based start-ups with access to markets, technical skills and funding opportunities.

These partnerships would provide African start-ups with access to skilling programs and markets, including opportunities to co-sell with Microsoft, as well as access to technology, with support from Microsoft’s engineering and product teams for co-innovation opportunities.

To enable start-ups to rapidly scale through using investment funding, Microsoft is establishing industry alliances and partnerships with venture capital investors that would facilitate access to $500 million in potential funding for African start-ups.

This funding would reportedly come from a network of venture capital investors, who would dedicate a portion of their financial support to start-ups in the Microsoft network.

It would interest us to note that Microsoft had already established partnerships with several key venture capital investors, including Banque Misr, Global Venture Capital and Get Funded Africa, and the intention was to grow this network of venture capital investors in the next five years to increase funding and enable them to scale up and drive economic growth.

Microsoft believes the vibrant African start-up market is well placed to become a cornerstone of the continent’s digital economy, supporting local innovation through relevant solutions to societal challenges.

The Managing Director of the Microsoft ATO, Wael Elkabbany said, “Investments into Africa’s start-up ecosystem are growing at an exciting pace. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), there are more than 640 active tech hubs across Africa, accelerating innovation and creating employment, particularly among the youth.”

“However, currently the African start-up market represents less than one per cent of total investments worldwide. This needs to change.”

He reveals that Microsoft’s endeavour to dramatically scale its impact would be driven by an overarching strategy with three key focus areas.

Elkabbany concludes, “There is huge potential for Africa to become a thriving hub of digital innovation on the global start-up landscape. Our ambition is to see an explosion of local inventions that will contribute positively, not just to Africa’s digital economy, but to global society.”

On his part, the Start-ups Lead of the Microsoft ATO, Gerald Maithya further disclosed that Microsoft was establishing partnerships with venture capital investors, primarily those with global reach and regional bases, who are interested in one or more regions within Africa.

He said, “Our goal in establishing these partnerships with venture capital investors is to extend the network of potential partnerships between Microsoft, venture capital investors and start-ups, thereby increasing the funding made available to eligible start-ups.”

“We understand that each start-up is unique and exists beyond the limitations of a one-size-fits-all partnership model. This is why Microsoft will tailor each partnership to the needs of individual start-ups, providing support and access – whether to technology, markets and co-sell opportunities, funding or digital skills – to enable them to grow and contribute to the wider economic growth of Africa.”

What was more of interest in Microsoft’s report, where it mentioned that ‘currently the African start-up market represents less than one per cent of total investments worldwide’ having acknowledged that the continent could boast of more than 640 active tech hubs.

This is to say that the concerned authorities on the African continent aren’t doing enough as expected of them, hence the compelling need to expedite actions in a bid keying into the needful.

Mastercard has continued to use partnership as a strategy to win more market shares as competition hits up in the payment industry.

The New York-based payment firm and fintech giant OPay have entered a strategic partnership to drive wider financial inclusion and boost economic prosperity by opening up digital commerce to millions of people across the Middle East and Africa.

The collaboration enables OPay consumers and merchants in the region – including Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Pakistan, South Africa, and the UAE – to engage with brands and businesses anywhere across the globe, thanks to a Mastercard virtual payment solution linked to the OPay eWallet.

This partnership is the latest milestone in Mastercard’s emerging market strategy where the technology company is collaborating with growing Fintech’s such as OPay to expand access to digital payments, enable multiple lifestyle services, create new pathways to financial inclusion and support the next generation of super-apps.

“As the leading fintech in the Middle East and Africa, we are delighted to be partnering with Mastercard as we continue on our journey to promote financial inclusion, helping to open up the global economy to more consumers and businesses across the Middle East, and Africa,” Yahui Zhou, CEO of OPay, said.

Consumers are increasingly looking for seamless user experiences on a single platform offering easier interactions to complete various day-to-day needs, including sending and receiving money, ordering food and groceries, organizing transport, lending, investing and listing items they wish to sell.

In the initial phase of this partnership, OPay customers will benefit from the Mastercard virtual payment solution linked to their OPay wallets, to shop at well-known global brands for leisure, travel, accommodation, entertainment, streaming services and more. The service is available regardless of whether or not the customer has a bank account. It also allows small business owners to purchase from suppliers abroad and pay with the secure virtual payment solution.

Mastercard has partnered with different payment outlets across the globe, including cryptocurrency platforms – a strategy Amnah Ajmal, Executive Vice President for Market Development, Mastercard EEMEA, said will help to create an interconnected global payments ecosystem.

“At Mastercard, our innovation strategy is rooted in partnerships to support inclusion at scale. Our partnership with OPay demonstrates our commitment to supporting payments providers across the world to create an interconnected global payments ecosystem that benefits an array of consumers with unique needs,” he said.

Since its operations started in 2018, OPay’s active users have grown to 15 million in dozens of markets in which it operates. The company processes millions of transactions per day on average. In Nigeria alone, where OPay takes a significant market share, users have saved billions of US dollars in the last four years through credit-linked savings accounts from their mobile wallets and small loans from lenders that use its platform.

Plans are in place to launch OPay services in other markets in the next three to five years, significantly driving the growth of digital inclusion and digital commerce, while at the same time widening OPay customer inclusion into the global economy.

Mastercard has made a worldwide commitment to financial inclusion, pledging to bring 1 billion people and 50 million micro and small businesses – with a focus on 25 million women entrepreneurs – into the digital economy by 2025. With OPay’s market share in the MEA regions, Mastercard has a high chance of attaining its 2025 goal.