IBM is set to give free softwares to all African universities this year in a move to help the institutions keep up with the changing technologies and improve learning in institutions.
According to Nick Nesbitt, Country General Manager Eastern Africa speaking to TechMoran at the IBM Connect conference in Nairobi, “IBM has made a commitment in investing in universities in Africa with free softwares to make students more productive, use analytics and advance learning in universities.”
Nesbitt added that the softwares will be used by students and universities to enhance productivity, as messaging platforms, for database management, for analytics and to enhance workplace productivity. Though Nesbitt didnt mention how much the firm will spend onthe softwares, IBM seems serious on impacting Africa’s research and education and ready to develop solutions for Africa’s diverse problems.
IBM Business Connect brought together IBM’s Africa channel and business partners for smarter solutions to Africa’s problems. IBM aims to use its Watson to study societal issues allover the world and use its data to solve the problems be it for business, for farmers or bankers and educationalists. IBM said it will invest $100 million for ten years into Africa’s only research lab set up in Nairobi to help solve local problems. These free softwares to universities and students in Africa will help the firm them on use of data, cloud among others for business intelligence.