By 2020 there’ll be half a billion internet users in Africa, presenting an opportunity for African businesses and digital entrepreneurs. Youth unemployment across Africa is high (35% in South Africa, 17% in Kenya, 13% in Nigeria) – developing digital entrepreneurship and creating new job opportunities for young people is critical to Africa’s transformative growth. But digital skills are still under-developed, making it harder for African economies to get the most out of the web.
To help close this knowledge gap, Google is today pledging to train 1 million young people in Africa in digital skills in the next year, as part of our contribution to growing Africa’s digital economy.
The company intends to train 300,000 people in South Africa, 400,000 Nigerians, 200,000 Kenyans and another 100,000 people from other sub-Saharan Africa countries.
Google has partnered with Livity Africa to develop training programs and is rolling out digifyafrica.com, a new online education portal for learners in the region. “We’re also talking to a number of other potential partners across Africa with a view to scaling the digital skills training program and helping to reach even more young people in more countries,” Google said in a statement.
Google agrees that more needs to be done to support people in Africa to succeed in the digital world, and it wants to be part of that.
