In collaboration with Fate Foundation and Mara Mentor, Microsoft today launched the ‘CloudPreneur Project’ in Nigeria, which will provide participating start-up with entrepreneurship, Cloud and ICT training. At the end of the project, the 20 best performing participants will receive mentorship to manage their own profitable businesses based on Cloud technology.
The Microsoft Cloud Start-Up academy also known as the CloudPreneur Project will train 100 Nigerian start-ups and provide 20 with mentorship to manage and sustain their Cloud-based businesses.
“Microsoft is committed to improving youth skills for both entrepreneurship and employability across Africa,” says Kabelo Makwane, Managing Director of Microsoft Nigeria. “Our efforts in Nigeria started with the launch of the Employability Portal in 2013, which provides a platform for youth to learn leadership skills and network with other leaders. Now through the CloudPreneur Project, we hope to enable and empower young business owners, so that they can contribute to the social and economic growth of Nigeria.”
The Project will be open to 1000 applicants who have been in business for 1 – 3 years. From these applications, 100 successful participants will be chosen. These participants will receive a four-week long training on business management, including training on: sales, technology, entrepreneurship, marketing, communication and start-ups management. Following this, 30 of these 100 participants will be provided with start-up models and, finally, the top 20 performers will be mentored on how to build their own Cloud-based business.
“Mara Mentor is proud to bring our expertise in entrepreneurship support and mentorship to the CloudPreneur Project,” says Hetal Shah, Director of Operations at Mara. “As an initiative focused on enabling, empowering and inspiring entrepreneurs, we believe this is an opportunity for young Nigerians in technology to get the training, support, and mentorship needed to build or grow cloud-based businesses.”
“It is pertinent that young people embrace the culture entrepreneurship in line with global trends, and with increasing wave of cloud computing, Mara Mentor is happy to partner with Microsoft to empower cloud-based entrepreneurs and their ideas,” he adds.
Applications for the CloudPreneur Project open on Friday 20th of March and close on Sunday 19th of April 2015.
To apply, visit: https://mentor.mara.com/
