Qualcomm’s 2023 Corporate Responsibility Report: Africa Innovation Platform
Originally published in Qualcomm's 2023 Corporate Responsibility Report
This past year we launched the Africa Innovation Platform, a suite of mentorship, education and training programs created to support the development of Africa’s emerging technology ecosystem. The platform provides resources and support for local universities, small-to-medium sized startups and grant participants, exposing them to Qualcomm engineers and our state-of-the-art capabilities for mobile platforms and technologies, including 4G, 5G, IoT, AI and machine learning.
We have engaged governments, trade associations and other key stakeholders across the continent, and we collaborated with the African Telecommunications Union to launch the Africa Innovation Platform. This platform includes:
Qualcomm® Make in Africa Startup Mentorship Program
An equity-free mentorship program that has identified promising early-stage startups keen on applying advanced connectivity and processing technologies to innovative endto-end systems solutions. We also provide these companies with business coaching, access to engineering consultation for product development and guidance on protecting IP.
Qualcomm Africa University Relations Program
This program bolsters the research and educational capabilities of select African universities, research labs and students by providing them with learning platforms, associated trainings and Qualcomm developer kits. The program also works with university faculty to develop courses and lab curricula. Qualcomm Academy plans to expand its 5G University Training Program to students at select African universities. The students will be able to receive 5G training and certification from industry-leading engineers. In 2023, Qualcomm Academy formed partnerships with companies and universities in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Rwanda, Zambia and Egypt, with the goal of training engineers across the continent.
Wireless Reach
Since 2007, our Wireless Reach initiative has invested in Africa, including a collaboration with the International Telecommunication Union’s Development Bureau. This collaboration focuses on building foundational digital skills for youth, with the aim of fostering the early stage of the talent pipeline to drive digital, inclusive economic transformation across the continent.
