The African Union Development Agency – New Partnership for Development (AUDA-NEPAD) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) it’s strategic partner on the development of the MSME Academy of the 100,000 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Initiative for all Africans are set to meet in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from the 26th – 28thMarch 2021 to review its strategies, share experiences, successes, lessons learnt and it gains in Q4 2020 and Q1 2021 and to further scale up on its partnership all in a bid to position the continent to recover and rebuild from the economic shock caused by COVID-19.

The initiative is as a result of the negative economic indices the continent has sprung up over the past decades amidst great human and mineral resources, currently with Africa’s labour force expected to reach 450 million people by 2035, governments, regional institutions and their partners will need to develop innovative and relevant job creation policies to benefit from this ‘demographic dividend’ says the (World Bank).

In response, AUDA-NEPAD launched the 100,000 MSMEs Programme to accelerate African economic transformation, provide skills development programming and build resilience against the economic shock triggered by the global pandemic. The ‘100k MSMEs’ initiative seeks to build the capacity of 100,000 enterprises in Africa through training on entrepreneurial and business skills to improve access to finance and new markets, while establishing networks for support and incubation to bolster their success.  

The MSMEs Programme is comprised of three pillars underpinned by a digital platform: MSME Academy, MSME Finance, and MSME Marketplace. UNDP will support the capacity building goals of the MSME Academy, including reaching and connecting MSMEs with vital capacities and resources to optimize productivity and sustainable economic benefits.

The initiative is aligned to Aspiration 1 of the African Union’s Agenda 2063, which aims at building a prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development. It is also linked to UN Sustainable Development Goal 8, which promotes inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

Objectives of the 100,000 MSME Academy

• Expand the reach of the 100k MSMEs initiative to youth across the continent and enable linkages into the wider entrepreneurship ecosystem that benefit the youth after training;
• Generate a database to enhance evidence-based policy recommendations to AU decision bodies as well as facilitate engagement with ecosystem partners such as financiers and links to trade and markets; and,
• Enable bottom-up engagement with youth and women entrepreneurs to ensure that youth and gender development policies benefit from their voice and participation as citizens of the continent.

Between August 2020 and February 2021, the MSME Academy launched in thirteen countries and recorded the following results: registration by 25,000 MSMEs, 14,000 MSMEs attended online events, and more than 3 million participants tuned into webinars held on radio and online platforms. The next step is to launch the academy in ten additional countries per quarter, starting Q2 2021, with training modules delivered in at least five languages accessible across all 55 African countries.

The outcome of this high level meeting between the AUDA-NEPAD and UNDP meeting would not only attest to the satisfaction of the work done but continue to give hope to thousands of would be MSME’s whom are relying on the MSME Academy to give them a platform to approach the future well prepared.