Alex Okosi, MD, Google Africa.

Google's economic impact in Africa generated $16 billion in new revenue for Sub-Saharan businesses, nonprofits, publishers, creators, and developers in 2023.

The global technology corporation released the Digital Opportunity of Sub-Saharan Africa report Wednesday, noting that Google's solutions, including as Workspace, Cloud, and Gemini, have helped African businesses and workers enhance productivity.

Working with market research firm Dynata, Google says it conducted extensive online polling of 7958 online adults in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe, and Senegal.

At the same time, the company says it polled 1752 senior business leaders from small, medium, and big online businesses across a range of industries.

It also performed an online survey of 1732 YouTube creators from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa.

According to the report, by using Google's tools, the region's businesses, organisations, publishers, creators, and developers were able to ‘expand, thrive, and create $16 billion in additional employment opportunities in a single year’.

“That’s equivalent to growing the revenue of over 1 million small and medium businesses in the region,” reads the report.

It continues: “These entrepreneurs already rely on Google’s accessible suite of tools and services to achieve their business ambitions. Of the participants in our research who identified as entrepreneurs, 85% reported using Google Workspace to organise their business operations.

”Google’s tools are no less important for start-ups. According to our business polling, 67% of businesses less than five years old agreed that the costs of starting a business have reduced substantially because of internet tools such as Google Search, Gmail, Google Docs, Google Workspace, or Google Business Profile.”

The report adds that Africa has seen the rise of seven tech unicorns, three of which are currently active in Nigeria and the majority of which are fintech companies.

It says: “To see this success grow further, Google is taking significant steps to champion ambitious young people across the region, helping them to overcome the challenges associated with starting a new business.”

According to the report, Google for Startup’s Black Founders Fund has supported 135 entrepreneurs in Sub Saharan Africa since 2021, with over $10 million of non-equity funding.

Google for Startups Accelerator Africa has mentored and graduated 120 companies in the last five years and in 2023, Google launched a specific AI First Accelerator Programme.

Google Startups for Sustainable Development programme has supported entrepreneurs from over 100+ startups across 20 African countries.

10,300 small medium businesses from across Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa have graduated from Google’s Hustle Academy boot camp since 2022.

Alex Okosi, MD, Google Africa, comments: “Technology’s power is in the benefits it brings to people and communities. The stories in this report reflect the profound ways it can improve lives.

“From entrepreneurs using Google Workspace to build their businesses to students leveraging Google Search for their studies, these individuals inspire us to continue pursuing our mission of driving digital transformation in the continent.”