Kenya’s booming talent pool makes it suitable hub for big tech

Kenya’s expanding pool of skilled information, communication and technology manpower has been identified as a key attraction for multinationals seeking expansion in Africa.

Two weeks ago, Google became the latest multinational tech to announce the establishment of its development centre in Nairobi under its five-year Kshs. 115 billion investment plan which was unveiled in October last year.

This followed Amazon announcing the setting up of Amazon Web Services local cloud infrastructure in Kenya, the first outside the United States and the first among 32 planned such facilities worldwide.

“This announcement reaffirms our country’s position as an attractive place to invest, powered by a high volume of local talented developers. It will boost the adoption of advanced cloud-based technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Internet of Things while helping to ensure secure use across the Kenyan technology sector,” said Joe Mucheru, ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs Cabinet Secretary during the launch in April.

Others which recently established local innovation and research hubs in Kenya also include Microsoft and Visa.

According to Google Kenya Communications and Public Affairs Manager Sharon Machira, Kenya has 60,000 professional developers, representing 9% of Africa’s total, and this has been the key reason the firm decided to establish the product development centre in Kenya.

“A study we commissioned ‘Africa Developer Report’ found that Kenya has a large developer population, a strong startup ecosystem with a strong funding environment, and stable socio-economic conditions. In 2020, Kenya attracted Kshs. 35 billion ($305M) in total equity funding that went into tech startups. Kenya also boasts of a highly favourable business and technology environment and increased digital adoption across sectors,” said Machira.

Google plans to hire 100 software engineers as a start and expects to add more within the five-year investment timeline.

Machira says post-pandemic, tech talent opportunities in the global economy have increased by 3.8% with demand for African developers from fintech, e-commerce, media and entertainment, health-tech, e-mobility, B2B logistics reaching new heights.

Under the Presidential Digital Talent being implemented by the ICT ministry, Kenya has been building its pool of skilled manpower to meet the sector demand in collaboration with the private sector, key among them Huawei.

Kenya’s other added advantage to attracting big tech is the high internet access as the country currently boasts 46 million internet subscriptions, backed to be a driver in raising next-generation developers.

Machira adds, “Increased internet penetration in fast-growing African economies such as Kenya’s has the potential to create new jobs and increase GDP per capita. A 10% increase in mobile internet penetration increases GDP per capita by 2.5% in Africa, compared with 2% globally.”

To add to the talent pool, in March, Google launched a programme to prepare an Intermediate Level curriculum for use in Technical and Vocational Training Institutes (TVETs).

Google is facilitating a 6-month initiative to train 300 TVET tutors who will oversee the delivery of intermediate-level skills in the development of Android applications reaching up to 10,000 students in 50 institutions annually.

Official data indicate that the number of employees in the telecommunications sector rose to 8,728 in 2020 as the value of output from the ICT sector hit Kshs. 535.5 billion.