With the understanding that several Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have been forced to rethink their business models and purpose to remain viable and healthy during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. The School of Science and Technology at USIU-Africa in partnership with the School of Graduate Studies, Research and Extension and the Global Agribusiness Management and Entrepreneurship (GAME) Program is excited to launch a new initiative that taps into an ecosystem of business resource organizations, teams of students and faculty. The project is designed to help our students gain valuable work experience while giving SMEs the much needed help in these trying times. This follows the successful piloting of the initiative which has seen us help several SMEs.

Through the initiative, we are offering a no-cost digital service to SMEs to help them transition to a digital revenue or operating model. Each project is done by a team of our student volunteers under the guidance of a mentor. The focus is on quickly solving one technology problem or providing one new online capability to the SME. Each project spans 2 – 3 weeks. In view of the current pandemic environment all the project activities like interaction with the SME client, team meetings all through to the final delivery of the completed product to the SME are done remotely.

The proposed services include but are not limited to:

• Create or modify a website to improve the business
• Create a desktop application to support business activities e.g. record, inventory or cash flows management
• Create a mobile app to support business activities e.g. inventory or cash flows management
• Consultation on technology to take existing operations digital

Our list of requests from the small business is growing fast and at the moment we have more than 120 SMEs requesting for technological uplift through this program! We are looking for USIU-A Graduate and undergraduate students (MIST/APT/IST) who are self-driven and can deliver on tasks assigned. To sign up to participate, click here