Microsoft and Zindi aim to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence skills for 10,000 young Africans

Marrakech|| In a move to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence in Africa, Microsoft Corporation has signed a memorandum of understanding to partner with Zindi to train 10,000 young Africans.

The 49-year-old Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington.

Zindi connects organizations with the global data science community. It hosts Africa’s largest community of data scientists, working to solve the world’s most pressing challenges using machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Both international companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the sidelines of the ongoing GITEX AFRICA 2024 holding in Marrakech, Morocco.

The agreement was signed by Lilian Barnard, president of Microsoft Africa, and Celina Lee, co-founder and CEO of Zindi.

Barnard noted that working with Zindi will enhance the future of tech talent across Africa, adding that Microsoft is committed to the continent’s digital transformation, particularly in artificial intelligence (AI) skills.

Zindi connects data scientists with organizations and provides a place to learn, improve skills and find work. “We want to transform the African continent and showcase African data analytics talent to the world,” said Celina Lee, co-founder and CEO of Zindi.

“The MoU allows us to truly scale the impact we have across the continent. We have young people in 52 countries in Africa because as Lilian said, we need to reach not only the youth, people in big cities, but everyone in every corner because it is important and AI is for everyone,” Lee told BusinessDay at the signing event memorandum of understanding .

Microsoft’s best-known products are Windows operating systems, the Microsoft 365 suite of office applications, and the Edge web browser. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface family of touchscreen personal computers.

Microsoft was ranked 14th on the 2022 Fortune 500 ranking of the largest U.S. corporations by total revenue; and was the world’s largest software company by revenue in 2022 according to Forbes Global 2000. It is considered one of the Big Five US IT companies, along with Alphabet (parent company of Google), Amazon, Apple and Meta (parent company of Facebook) .