Facebook has launched an initiative to equip small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) with digital skills that will help entrepreneurs grow their businesses, tap into audiences that are moving online.
Under the initiative dubbed “Boost with Facebook”, the firm has partnered with Wylde International, a Kenyan company that builds capacity of business, to train 3,000 entrepreneurs in Nairobi, Kisumu, Nakuru and Mombasa on the nitty-gritties of the digital space.
The entrepreneurs will be trained at no cost.
Facebook Head of Public Policy, East Africa, Mercy Ndegwa, said they are enabling local businesses to use social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram to unlock new business opportunities and compete at a Pan-African and global level.
“This is a global programme that Facebook runs to arm businesses with the right digital tools to help you increase the visibility and add value to your business and target customers that you would not otherwise have access to,” Ms. Ndegwa.
For businesses, the Boost with Facebook training covers areas like how to create and manage a Facebook Page for your business, a step-by-step guide to creating Facebook ads from your Page, how to create and manage an Instagram account for your business, growing your business with Facebook and Instagram, How to create, manage, evaluate and optimize your campaigns with Facebook Ads Manager and Publish, connect and monetize on Facebook and Instagram among others.
SMEs account for about 30 percent of the GDP.
The launch of Boost with Facebook in Kenya follows launches of similar programmes across Africa including; South Africa, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Cameroon, DRC, Benin and Guinea Conakry, and is another step forward in enabling local businesses to unlock new business opportunities.
Speaking at the launch as the Chief Guest, former Youth Fund Chairman Ronald Osumba remarked that SMEs will be able to instantly have access to a market base of 2.7 billion customers around the world, when they put their business on Facebook.
“The future of business is online, and this gives the entrepreneurs a chance to learn how to build communities around your business and how to leverage on those communities,” he noted
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