Startups in West Africa will benefit from a newly announced partnership between the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) and Samsung Electronics. The partners said the goal of the initiative is to provide entrepreneurs in the West African region with more opportunities, resources and tools.

MEST currently trains, invests in, and incubates tech entrepreneurs, and Samsung will be playing active roles from the early stages of the entrepreneurs' training, starting with ideation and pitching. Samsung will also support MEST with subsidized devices and tablets that can be used to test out and further develop their solutions.

In addition, tech entrepreneurs training at MEST can qualify for internship positions at Samsung. Samsung Enterprise Business Partners in Nigeria can also invest and own stakes in new or existing companies incubated at MEST.

They said the MEST-Samsung partnership will help open doors for MEST incubator companies - both consumer and B2B focused - to partner on distribution of mobile applications and cross-marketing services.

Samsung will work with MEST-incubated companies and facilitate introductions of market-fit and market-ready MEST startups to Samsung Enterprise Business Partners and Samsung Information and Mobility Business teams.

This engagement will serve to further explore specific commercial and technical partnerships to pilot and scale these products/services through strategic projects addressing market needs in education, financial services, healthcare, retail, transportation and hospitality.

"Startups incubated at MEST are developing innovative applications that can add value to end-users in West Africa and promote the adoptions of Samsung products, solutions and services," said Charles Ojei, director, Enterprise Business for Samsung Electronics West Africa.

"We are amongst the first on the African continent to both train software entrepreneurs for two years as well as guide them through investment programs that yield actual results. Samsung is very excited to be involved in this full-circle program and look forward to supporting at each phase in a mutually beneficial relationship that is win-win for both parties. The MEST model builds local talent and capacity, enhances the tech ecosystem and also creates sustainable jobs and wealth within the community, and we are proud to be a part of that."