• Tuesday, March 19, 2024
businessday logo

BusinessDay

Microsoft taps talent, innovation opportunities in Africa

Microsoft

Having recognised a sizeable talent pool, great deal of innovation and creativity in Africa’s teeming youth population, Microsoft has taken a bold step to invest $100 million in building an African Development Centre (ADC) in Lagos Nigeria and Nairobi Kenya, in order to create an opportunity for developers in the continent to get involved in developing at foundational level, technology for global consumption.

With six other development centres in India, Europe and United States of America, the African Development Centre with two sites, is Microsoft’s seventh.

According to the company; the best local software developers and engineers in the African region will be hired and trained to develop cutting edge technology solutions, working with Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), developing robots, virtual reality and future technologies.

Speaking at the launch of the ADC in Lagos on Friday 17 May, Michael Fortin, corporate vice president, Microsoft, said; “The ADC has been a dream and vision but today it’s a reality. One of the things that drew us to this region is the immense talent. We’ve been engaging with universities and talking to our customers in the region and it has been very clear to us that there is a sizeable talent pool, a great deal of innovation and creativity in the region and we can be successful as a company by working closely with those engineers and we can be more successful in the continent of Africa by having a presence here and listening and learning intensely as opposed to being remote. So we look forward to the future in a big way.’

“We are going to hire 100 software engineers before the end of 2019. That is our first year goal and 500 by the end of 3 years; a total of $100 million investment from Microsoft for the development centres,” he said.

According to him, these engineers will be building with Microsoft, products that reach everyone of its customers across the globe.

“We also expect that the local business communities here will be providing direct feedback to these engineers about how we can improve our products for the local region, and we will take that into account, not just on the products that they are working on, but also all across Microsoft, for all the products and services that we provide,” Fortin added.

To support the development of the required skills, Microsoft says it is also partnering with local universities to create a modern intelligent edge and cloud curriculum, unique to Africa. Graduates from top Nigerian engineering universities will have access to the ADC to build relevant and meaningful careers in data science, AI, mixed reality, application development and more.

Kayode Alese, professor of Computer Science, Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) says, “For more than 20 years I have taught computer science to enthusiastic African students, but still Africa has been referred to as the last technology frontier. The fact Microsoft has taken the giant step of setting up its first development centre in Nigeria is a testament to the huge talent base that exists in our academic institutions. It is a great time to be a Nigerian.”

“We have already started our work in Nigeria around our mixed reality offering and I am very much looking forward to the kind of innovation that will come from the ADC,” says Alex Kipman, technical fellow at Microsoft and the lead in establishing the first engineering team in Lagos. “I am looking to learn, understand, and work hard so that we can grow together organically.”

Speaking to journalists at the launch, Kipman said; “My perspective is that innovation and disruption can come from anywhere. People don’t have to leave their families and cultures behind in Africa in order to get the opportunity to create leading edge technology that will define the future of computing.”

Akin Banuso, Microsoft’s country manager for Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon said; “The thing that really excites me about the ADC is the potential of our youth to actually participate in world class technology development. That our people will be involved in developing products that will be consumed globally is exciting for me.”

 

Jumoke Akiyode Lawanson