Capacity Building for African ICT Entrepreneurs

Project Description

Washington State University (WSU) International Programs Research and Development (IPRD) will provide technical input, design and leadership for the development of an open curriculum supporting successful information communication technology (ICT) entrepreneurship and initiatives.

This goal will be accomplished through finalizing and electronically publishing an ICT entrepreneurship curriculum, a combination of targeted training events, and a business a planning competition. These activities will create openly available, replicable models for ICT entrepreneurship training that can be brought to scale through key alliances and public-private partnerships such as the Cisco Networking Academy.  Achieving these objectives will reinforce the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator’s initiative  “Partnerships for Promoting the African Entrepreneur,” that seeks to help spur the growth of small to medium enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Benefits identified through this project:

• Coordination, and capacity building support for the development of entrepreneurship training for information technology partners already providing support and training for ICT entrepreneurs in Africa.
• Cisco Networking Academy sites in locations with high unemployment will benefit with graduates capable of initiating new businesses and creating jobs in their communities.
• Increased capacity and support for targeted new ICT ventures in West Africa.