Microsoft Corp. plans to spend over Kshs 10 billion over five years to open its first development centers in East and West Africa. Initial sites will be in Nairobi and Lagos.
“The Africa Development Centre will be unlike any other existing investment on the continent. It will help us better listen to our customers, develop locally and scale for global impact,” Phil Spencer, Executive Vice President at Microsoft said. “Beyond that, it’s an opportunity to engage further with partners, academia, governments and developers- driving impact in sectors important to the continent, such as FinTech, AfriTech and OffGrid energy.”
The company seeks to recruit 100 full-time engineers by the end of the year and will expand to 500 across the two centers by 2023, Microsoft said in a statement Tuesday.
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President Uhuru Kenyatta said he supports and welcomes Microsoft to open their next development centre in Kenya. “You can count on my 100% support. I want this to be a transparent partnership that benefits Microsoft and Kenyans. We want you to make Kenya your African home,” President Kenyatta said when he met top executives of Microsoft, led by Executive Vice President for Gaming Phil Spencer.
The centre will leverage on the diversity of the regional landscape to build world-class talent capable of creating innovative solutions for global impact.
The centre is also expected to establish a collaborative engineering springboard for new technology investments in Kenya.
