A month after Jack Ma, cofounder of Alibaba, visited the capital; a new training program is set to be launched in collaboration with the Alibaba Business School and the Ethiopian Ministry of Innovation and Technology.
To be named the ‘First Alibaba Netpreneur Training Program’, the 10 days program will host local entrepreneurs and business owners from Ethiopia, inside Alibaba’s Headquarters in Hangzhou, China. The program is set to begin in March of next year.
According to the program announcement, it is geared towards those “Committed to harnessing digital technology to transform local businesses for lasting success,” and aims to “Teach attendees to accelerate the digital development of their businesses and work with related parties to build success cases that will become the building blocks of their local communities and, ultimately, the larger digital economy.”
Furthermore, the program will explore how technology can help grown business capabilities, expose them to the company’s ecosystem, practices and network with leading Chinese corporate leaders and learn ways on how to grow their businesses strategically at home.
While in Ethiopia, Jack Ma announced a new initiative to fund African entrepreneurs to the tune of USD 100 million and an e-commerce platform for Ethiopia, in partnership with MiNT, to benefit small and micro enterprises that remain the backbone of the Ethiopian economy, but lags behind their contemporaries abroad.
One of China’s most successful entrepreneurs, Ma has shown a growing interest in Africa’s young entrepreneurs and has visited a number of nations extensively. His interest follows that of China, which has a growing and sometimes overwhelming presence in the continent, in areas of manufacturing, building of mega projects and aid.
“The new platform will facilitate the flow of goods across boundaries, e-commerce, retail and wholesale trading’s, in addition to helping Ethiopian youth acquire training in digital skills,” the company said in a statement.
