NMG partners with Microsoft to boost AI skills among Kenyan workers
From left: Head of IT at Nation Media Group (NMG) Mercy Kimani, Head of Human Resource at NMG Jane Muiruri, AI National Skills Director at Microsoft Winnie Karanu, NMG’s Chief Operating Officer Monicah Ndung’u and Lead NMG Foundation Daisy Maritim during Microsoft's launch of the AI National Skilling Initiative at Raddison Blu Hotel in Nairobi, on November 14, 2024.
What you need to know:
- NMG, UNDP and the Kenya Private Sector Alliance are some of the partners in the project.
- Microsoft says it has received requests from several employers in the country seeking to be part of the programme.
Microsoft East Africa has launched a programme that will equip more than 100,000 workers in various sectors of Kenya’s economy with job skills in Artificial Intelligence (AI) every year.
AI, one of the Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies, is reshaping the world across numerous fields— bringing transformative changes in how people live, work, and interact.
Sadly, Kenya, Africa and the entire Global South have been lagging behind in knowledge, skills and adoption of the revolutionary technology that is billed to reshape the global order in the near future.
It is this gap that Microsoft and its partners, including the Nation Media Group (NMG) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), are seeking to fill through training and equipping professionals and students with AI skills and tools.
Targeted sectors include education, health, agriculture, ICT, transport, among others.
Various groups will be trained either directly, by logging onto Microsoft course portals, or through partners such as the UNDP and NMG.
In its broad plan, the US-based tech multinational has partnered with governments in East Africa, and the private sector as it seeks to reach more than one million people in the region by 2027.
During the launch of the initiative in Nairobi on Thursday, Winnie Karanu, Microsoft’s AI National Skills Director for Sub-Saharan Africa, said the partnership with the Kenyan government and local media was expected to improve service delivery, and revolutionalise information sharing.
“One of the area that we are trying to support with the local media is awareness. With new technology, you have to ensure that everyone knows about it but making sure that you also communicate it in the best way possible,” Ms Karanu said during the media briefing.
In its partnership with the government, which will be facilitated through the UNDP, Microsoft said it was seeking to breathe new life in some of the recently launched innovative programmes targeting the youth— including Ajira, Smart Academy, and Jitume.
Microsoft will also be working with some of the local universities to deepen its initiative and ensure that students are well equipped with such skills by the time that they are graduating.
“We can work on the faculty skilling by ensuring that faculties have the right skillset to be able to integrate the technologies in the classroom, but also the students themselves having access to this technology and test them out,” Ms Karanu said.
Additionally, the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa) has also been brought on board to improve skills in private sector by ensuring that Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) adopt AI technology in their businesses.
Ms Karanu revealed that the company had already received requests from several employers in the country seeking to be part of the programme.
Nation Media Foundation and the Nation Media Group welcomed their partnership as they seek to equip staff with skills and integrate AI technologies in its operations.
“There is a digital element to it because it is not just about the AI but about general digital skills and what this helps us to do is to ensure that our journalists, our staff across the business are well equipped to handle work in 2024 and above because we are living in a digital future,” said NMG Chief Operating Officer (COO) Monicah Ndungu.
NMG will also be part of the knowledge campaign drive which is targeting to educate the region on various aspects of the technology.
“Being able to leverage the experience of communication through media will be a critical piece in terms of being able to just get into a place of social acceptance of what AI is,” Ms Karanu stated.
