HP and UpSkill Universe, a leading AI and business skills training partner in Sub-Saharan Africa, have launched a new programme aimed at equipping 55,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria and South Africa with free, practical artificial intelligence skills, as businesses increasingly look to technology to improve productivity, customer service and decision-making.
The AI Skills for Business Programme, powered by HP LIFE, the HP Foundation’s free global training platform, and delivered by UpSkill Universe, is designed to close the gap between growing awareness of AI and its actual application within small businesses.
The initiative builds on the partners’ Skills for Business Programme, which reached more than 40,000 SMEs last year in partnership with HP and Google. The new programme shifts the emphasis from reach to measurable business impact, targeting the deployment of AI tools in everyday business functions.
The AI Skills for Business Programme will train SME owners to apply AI to areas including reporting, decision-making, risk management, customer experience and operational optimisation.
Gori Yahaya, founder and CEO, UpSkill Universe, said the programme was designed to address the practical barriers preventing small businesses from translating AI awareness into measurable commercial outcomes.
“Small businesses across Nigeria and South Africa already have the ambition to deploy AI in their day-to-day operations. What they lack is access to quality training tailored to their needs, and guidance on how to deploy it consistently,” Yahaya said.
He said the latest programme would give 55,000 business owners free, practical AI training that could be applied immediately, adding that Africa’s next phase of business growth would increasingly be driven by AI.
Rather than relying solely on online courses, the programme adopts a staged model intended to move SMEs from basic skills acquisition to practical implementation.
Starting this month, 55,000 SMEs across Nigeria and South Africa will be onboarded onto HP LIFE and required to complete at least three courses as part of the programme’s initial skills-development phase.
A further 5,000 SMEs will participate in 90-minute, facilitator-led virtual sessions built around HP LIFE content and adapted to real-world business challenges.
Each participating SME will leave the live training with a specific AI tool to test within its business over the following 30 days, creating an implementation component beyond conventional digital-skills training.
The programme will then select 50 top-performing SMEs for an intensive Build Your Business with AI Bootcamp.
The bootcamp will combine business audits, guided mentorship and a 90-day action plan aimed at helping participating businesses optimise their operations using AI.
Participants are expected to increase their AI confidence by 50 percent and implement at least one AI-driven business process.
HP employees will serve as mentors to bootcamp participants, supporting them as they execute their 90-day plans.
The programme is also placing emphasis on broadening access to AI capabilities among groups that are often underrepresented in technology adoption. Youth- and women-led businesses are targeted to account for 40 percent of participants, giving the initiative an inclusion component alongside its productivity objective.
Yesh Surjoodeen, managing director for Southern and Central Africa at HP, said technology adoption alone would not be sufficient to transform the productivity of small businesses.
“Business owners need the practical skills, confidence, and support to turn technology into opportunity,” Surjoodeen said.
He said the AI-focused programme was intended to help SMEs tackle everyday business challenges, improve customer service and unlock sustainable growth.
With the latest initiative targeting 55,000 additional businesses, the partnership is effectively scaling its SME digital-skills intervention while placing AI at the centre of its next phase.
Registration for the programme is now open, with live sessions beginning this month and the first bootcamp scheduled for January.
