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Google announced on Wednesday that its Digital Skills for Africa programme has reached a milestone, having trained one million Africans under the programme. Launched on April 16, 2016, the tech giant had a target to train one million Africans in digital skills within a year. Google said the initiative reached its goal one month earlier than anticipated.   

Having reached the milestone, the tech company said it will provide offline versions of the training materials to expand the reach of the programme to individuals and businesses in areas where it is unable to hold physical training sessions due to access challenges. In addition, Google will provide offline versions of the contents in languages like Swahili, IsiZulu and Hausa.

The programme is designed to help individuals grow their businesses through the mastery of digital marketing. Edubridge Consultants, a Nigerian information resource company, is among the 14 training partners for the Digital Skills for Africa initiative.

“Having one million digitally skilled young people in Africa is good for everyone. If young people have the right skills, they’ll build businesses, create jobs and boost economic growth across the continent,” said Bunmi Banjo, Google Sub-Saharan Africa's Growth Engine & Brand Lead.

Participants across 20 countries are offered 89 courses through the g.co/digitalskills online portal. Google said the programme will also address the needs of small business owners, who are looking to better understand how to take advantage of the web, social media and search engines. A web-focused skills training for SMEs will be added as part of the initiative.

“As we expand this initiative to hard to reach areas across the continent, we hope to see more impact in everyday lives of Africans,” Banjo added.