This platform is a suite of mentorship, education and training programmes created to support the development of the continent’s emerging technology ecosystem.

Qualcomm has announced that the Africa Innovation Platform has completed its first year.

This is a set of mentorship, education, and training courses designed to help the continent's nascent technology ecosystem develop.

The American multinational corporation's platform has provided resources and support to local colleges, ten small-to-medium-sized entrepreneurs, and award participants.

This equity-free mentorship programme, said to be the first of its kind in Africa, identified promising early-stage startups interested in applying advanced connectivity and processing technologies to innovative end-to-end systems solutions, including hardware, and provided these companies with business coaching, access to engineering consultation for product development, and guidance on intellectual property protection.

Beneficiaries were exposed to Qualcomm engineers and its range of mobile platforms and technologies, including 4G, 5G, AI, the Internet of Things , and machine learning.

The inaugural cohort comprises include entrepreneurs from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda.

The Qualcomm Africa University Relations Programme, Qualcomm Academy, and Qualcomm Wireless Reach Social Impact Funds, as well as the Patent Filing Incentive, are all part of the Africa Innovation Platform.

"With emerging technologies in 5G, AI, robotics, IoT, and multimedia, we are seeing a new era of invention," said Alex Rogers, President, Qualcomm Technology Licencing and Global Affairs.

"Through initiatives like the Qualcomm Innovation Platform, we are enabling companies around the world to build on our foundational technologies and join us in finding solutions to the world's biggest challenges," Rogers said in a statement.

The Qualcomm Make in Africa startup mentorship programme for 2024 is now accepting applications.