Tech companies founded in the United States are setting up software
development centers in Nigeria and Kenya, where a number of young
developers has led to growing tech communities.
Microsoft has launched its Microsoft 4 Afrika initiative, aiming to help
empower African youth, entrepreneurs, developers and others to make
their ideas a reality. Steve Case, the AOL founder, and his
wife Jean, Generation Investment Management and Sir Richard Branson have
provided $19 million to Kenyan pay-as-you-go energy start-up M-KOPA
Solar.
Andela,
which has attracted $24 million of funding from a scheme led by the
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, says it has screened more than 40,000
applicants across Africa over two years and accepted the top 0.7% to
work at its bases in Lagos and Nairobi. The developers write code and
specialize in frameworks such as Python/Django, iOS and Android
and PHP/Laravel.
STORY FROM TOYOTA CAMRY
Western Australia is the bold destination you shouldn’t miss
Andela picked Lagos and Nairobi as bases because of the interest in
technology among young people, a buzzing tech sector and the fact
English is spoken in both countries. The firm said it intends to
announce a third country by the end of the year.
New York-based Christina Sass, who co-founded Andela with Jeremy
Johnson, Ian Carnevale and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji in May 2014, told USA
TODAY they wanted the young people to have global exposure but to remain
at home to keep talent there — “the obvious answer was software
development."
The ultimate goal is for Andela alumni to lead the spread of technology
across the continent, and Andela's founders expect them to start their
own social businesses and to be chief technology officers and product
managers.
Jonathan Godfrey, vice president for public policy and public affairs at
Washington-based The App Association, which represents more than 5,000
app companies, said there's a "drastic shortage" of software developers
across the United States.
"This is felt in companies large and small and in communities of every
size across the country," he said. "Start-ups find their path to growth
are blocked if they cannot hire talented developers. This is a problem
of critical importance to the entire tech industry."
Innocent Amadi, 24, joined Andela in June this year and has dealt with two projects from inception to completion.
“It’s just amazing,” Amadi, from Imo State in eastern Nigeria, said of
his experience. He met Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg when
he visited Andela’s offices in Nigeria this year and told them how he
started.
“We see that everything is possible — it depends on what you believe in
and what you do,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where you come from.”
In the future, Amadi said he wants to tackle education problems in Africa, giving more people access to education.
Blessing Ebowe, an Andela fellow from Benin City in southern Nigeria,
said she didn’t know much about programming when a friend told her about
Andela. She applied and joined last year.
“Nigerian developers now understand that the world is watching and are
therefore putting more effort, time, hard work and passion into what was
on ground before,” she said, adding that it would give Nigerian
developers an edge in the worldwide tech industry and increase
investment locally.
Seni Sulyman, Andela’s director of operations in Nigeria, said in his
vision for Nigeria’s tech future, he expects to see a lot of innovation
from “unexpected pockets” in the country.
He said three key challenges the country’s tech industry faces are a
lack of affordable infrastructure — especially electricity, Internet and
real estate — low access to funds and a dearth of experienced tech
entrepreneurs.
“Despite these challenges, Andela is already driving change by
connecting local talent into the global technology ecosystem, and we
aspire to eventually mobilize hundreds of thousands of developers across
Africa,” he said.
He said Zuckerberg’s visit “reinforces not only his support of Andela's
mission, but his belief that indeed the next generation of great
technology leaders will come out of Lagos, Nairobi and cities across
Africa.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment