California-based Google wants to get a bigger share of Africa’s growing online population, which is expected to reach 800 million by 2030.
The Internet search giant announced this month that it is setting up its first product development center on the continent, located in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. It is scheduled to open next year and will provide employment to more than 100 people.
Charles Murito, head of government affairs and public policy for sub-Saharan Africa at Google, said the investment would create many opportunities in Africa’s tech sector.
“The Product Development Center is going to be the one that works here to create transformative products and services for the people of the continent, as well as a product for the rest of the world,” he said. “So last week’s announcement was really just a start in terms of the recruitment process for people going to work in this product development center for Africa. And that will include roles such as Product Manager, UX Designer and Researcher, and Engineers, And that’s really just a starting point in the work that we’re going to do.”
The multinational technology company said its mission is to make the world’s information universally accessible and create a product that works well for Africans.
Bitang Ndemo, former principal secretary of Kenya’s Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology, said the government needs to train more of its youth to benefit from the Google Centre.
“It is an amazing investment in the sense that it is going to help reduce the unemployment problem in this country, but which tells the Kenyan government that they should start investing in youth skills and skills so that they can be in demand. already. The demand for such skills exceeds the supply locally.”
Google has trained over 80,000 certified developers from Africa over the years.
The firm is investing $1 billion in projects over the next five years to help support the growth of the Africa Internet economy.
Murito said the investment will transform Africa.
“This is an opportunity to create products that work best for Africans at large and so, whether you are thinking of financial inclusion or products from other sectors of the economy, we believe there is a great deal here on the continent. By having a product development centre, we will be able to know in advance what the challenges are and also be able to create products that will serve and solve some of those challenges.”
Microsoft has also invested in Kenya, hiring hundreds of engineers from the East African nation.
The continent comes with its own challenges for businesses as some countries lack good governance and rule of law and this creates an uncertain environment for investment. Some countries have shut down the internet to silence their citizens.
Murito said his organization works with African governments to encourage innovation and develop policies that sustain innovation.
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