Google Africa celebrated the graduation of 5000 entrepreneurs who had completed its Hustle Academy training programme with events in Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa. In Nigeria, the event was hosted in Lagos with more than 70 graduates in attendance.
The graduates of this year were selected from about 10,000 applications. The 5000 alumni come from 23 cohorts that participated in virtual bootcamps that lasted five days.
During these bootcamps, participants learnt how to define their business strategy, boost sales, and make investor funding pitches. Lessons on smart financial planning and digital marketing were also covered in the curriculum.
At the end of the program, each entrepreneur received individualized mentoring sessions to address certain issues they were having with their business and to obtain guidance from a network of qualified mentors and coaches.
Inuwa Kashifu Abdullahi, the Director General of NITDA, spoke at the graduation ceremony about the significance of the country’s digital transformation and the necessity for Nigerians to advance their digital skills in order to contribute to society and also compete in the global market.
Read Also: Google launches ‘Hustle Academy’ to train 5000 entrepreneurs across Africa
Google’s Hustle Academy new plans
Following the graduation ceremony, and as part of their dedication to supporting African entrepreneur, Google Africa also announced it will be launching a new series titled “Hustle Academy Brings You…” on its YouTube channel.
The new talk-show-style video series, will feature well-known and respected entrepreneurs from all over Africa and share useful advice and growth strategies to motivate upcoming entrepreneurs. This will also help enrich and broaden the Hustle Academy program initiative.
Entrepreneurs from Africa, including Engr. Nnamdi Ezeigbo, CEO and founder of SLOT Systems Ltd., will share their insights, lessons learned, and words of wisdom. This series hopes to provide SMBs the chance to hear from entrepreneurs in different industries about the problems, themes, and topics that they frequently deal with.
This will also help Google further fulfill its promise to support the success of entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Google committed to support African entrepreneurs
The Google Hustle Academy was launched in February of this year and is dedicated to offering real-world business training that enables entrepreneurs to develop the soft skills that go along with their innate talents.
This is just one of many Google programs dedicated to assisting small and medium-sized enterprises in Africa.
While there has been substantial progress in the development of these abilities since Google began offering digital skills training in Africa in 2017, Small and Medium Businesses still want more hands-on assistance.
The Hustle Academy’s main goal is to provide Small Medium Businesses with the knowledge, tools, and access they need to thrive and grow.
Speaking on Google’s commitment especially for SMEs, Mojolaoluwa Aderemi-Makinde, Head of Brand and Reputation for Google in sub-Saharan Africa, she said,
Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are the backbone of the global economy, and in Africa, they account for an estimated 80% of jobs. In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, there are an estimated 44 million micro, small and medium enterprises, which function as important drivers of economic growth.
If we recall, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that the company intended to invest $1 billion in Africa over the following five years to support a variety of initiatives, from better connection to investment in startups, to support the continent’s digital transformation.
The software giant is trying to explore their investment ideas in a plethora of ways, and this is just one of them.