Official Google Africa Blog: June 2022

Africa Blog

Google in Sub-Saharan Africa: news, stories and thoughts

Supporting Marginalised People’s Craft with Carakana

Monday, June 27, 2022

While incarcerated at Langata Women’s Prison in Kenya, I discovered a craft which would change my life forever. I had been in prison since 2009 where I was serving time for robbery. I missed my two boys and sister terribly and it was a very difficult time for me.

Portrait of Caroline Wanjiku taken while she

was serving time at Langata Women’s Prison in Nairobi, Kenya

In 2016, Her Excellency Mama Rachel Ruto, the spouse to the Deputy President, visited Langata Prison where, we learned, she would be teaching us a new skill. I was excited that such a prominent person cared about incarcerated people like me and was looking forward to learning a new craft. However, I was also wary as there had been previous projects run in the prisons which took advantage of us and didn’t pay us for our work. I soon enrolled in the Carakana programme, and was taught Cross Stitch by Her Excellency Mama Rachel Ruto and the team from Carakana.

Cross-stitching is very intricate and is one of the oldest forms of embroidery. It uses number codes on a grid of squares marked on a piece of cloth to guide on thread colour and sowing direction, resulting in a pattern of threading that reveals an embedded picture or other artistic representation that would otherwise not be visible to the naked eye.

I have come a long way since 2016 and my first lesson, and I have created a number of beautiful art pieces. The money paid to me for my work helped me to pay school fees for my two boys and my sister and enabled me to care for my upkeep while in prison.

About Carakana Documentary, from the collection of Carakana on Google Arts & Culture (link)

While the financial empowerment that cross stitching has given me and the beauty of the end product are of huge importance, these are not the only reasons I did it. When I was incarcerated, cross stitching brought my fellow inmates and I together. During the times we worked together, we got to share our experiences and found the space and time to help each other in our difficult circumstances. This helped to occupy our minds more with our focus on the stitching and our sense of community and less with the anxious thoughts of our separation from our families and the fate of our court cases. During the night, my sleep came a lot easier after a full day of focused stitching.

In 2020 I was released from prison and joined my two boys at home. With the money I saved while in prison I am running a small business. I have Carakana to thank for the life that I am now enjoying.

I am humbled and privileged to have my work, and that of my colleagues, profiled on Google Arts & Culture with Carakana and hope that my story will inspire others. To learn more, visit here or download the Google Arts & Culture app for Android or iOS.

Posted by Caroline Wanjiku, business owner and Carakana beneficiary

Google helps African SMBs embrace ecommerce

Thursday, June 23, 2022

On 27 June, the world marks Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day. It's a day worth celebrating, particularly in Africa, where small companies are the main drivers of jobs and economic growth. But it also serves as a reminder that small businesses need support to thrive, particularly in the aftermath of the challenges they've endured in the previous two years.

At Google, we’re inspired by small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across Africa and therefore want to help them achieve their business goals and have an array of digital tools, training, and support channels they can use. We've been expanding on that commitment this month with events and activities geared at assisting African SMBs in taking the next step in their ecommerce journey.

Shop Small Business Summit
The Shop Small Summit, our first ecommerce-focused International Small Business Month event, held this week. The one-hour virtual event aimed at helping small business owners improve their knowledge of ecommerce trends in Sub Saharan Africa included key sessions, talks and speeches from speakers from LSETF, KEPSA, MTN, Yoco, Sendy, and Bumpa, an ads marketing masterclass, and announcements about new Google tools and products to support SMBs in Africa.

Dedicated Hustle Academy cohorts
Hustle Academy, our free week-long bootcamp intended to help small and medium-sized businesses get the skills they need to thrive, will host two retail-focused cohorts aimed at on helping small businesses owners acquire the skills to scale and grow their retail operations. We have also been collaborating with local partners such as Bumpa, BidorBuy, PayStack and Jiji who provide free web presence maintenance to assist African SMBs in achieving long-term online success.

New digital marketing and e-commerce certificate
In partnership with the well-known open online course provider Coursera, we have designed an online professional certificate course in digital marketing and e-commerce for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) and have made available 1,000 scholarships to Africans who desire to enroll. The certificate program is the most recent in a series of efforts targeted at preparing participants for entry jobs.Find out more at g.co/grow/ecommercecertificate

New Local Opportunity Finder tool
To help local businesses be more discoverable on Google Search, we created the Local Opportunity Finder tool, which analyzes a Google Business Profile and makes personalized recommendations to business owners on how to enhance the way their business profile looks to consumers when they use Google Search. Find out more at g.co/lof/ssa

For the SMBs that can take advantage of it, this ecommerce explosion represents a significant opportunity. As a study by McKinsey points out, it not only allows SMBs to transcend the limits of brick and mortar stores but also to reach new markets more efficiently.

As exciting as it’s been to witness the growth in African ecommerce over the past couple of years, it’s even more exciting to think about how much more room for growth there still is.

We’re excited to be on this journey, and to be providing support to business owners on the continent.

By Mojolaoluwa Aderemi-Makinde, Regional Head Brand and Reputation, Africa - Google

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