By the end of 2016 SAP SE and Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) signed a historic agreement to strengthen tech entrepreneurship in developing countries under the BMZ’s Make-IT initiative. The agreement aims to bring together key public and private sector players in Germany, Europe and continents such as Africa, Asia and Latin America to foster IT start-ups in developing countries and emerging economies worldwide.
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, will implement the programme on behalf of BMZ. Make-IT starts in Africa in two pilot countries, i.e. Nigeria and Kenya. “We seek to foster IT startups because they have a great potential to create jobs, generate revenue and find creative and innovative solutions to pressing issues faced by citizens and their societies,” says Dr. Jan Schwaab, Head of the GIZ Programme “Make-IT in Africa”. “We strongly believe that start-ups can contribute to sustainable and inclusive economic growth if they manage to overcome the many hurdles they face – in particular getting access to markets and key partners from industry. We are proud to partner with SAP and other major German and European IT companies to support tech start-ups and their ecosystems, with greater market access and exposure.”
Under this umbrella SAP SE and GIZ agreed to jointly run the first Make-IT project worldwide in Nigeria. This project will combine the skills and experience of local and international GIZ experts with SAP’s successful Startup Focus-Program. This will ensure that tailored input meets the specific needs of each startup, including but not limited to design thinking experts, access to financing partners, access to leading edge technology, deeper collaboration with local accelerators, mentors etc. to maximize the probability of commercial success for each startup.
