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What the Entry of Google, Visa, Microsoft and possibly Amazon means to the Tech Ecosystem in Kenya and Africa

Incubate Africa

African startups are responsible for hiring more than half of local developers, with foreign companies outside the continent hiring 38% of the remaining talent. While Africa has a nascent developer ecosystem, these latest statistics suggest a climb for the continent’s top talent – those with strong programming skills in web and mobile apps development. This competition seems to have had a positive effect on salaries and other forms of compensation.

“More African developers are getting full-time jobs due to both the rise in demand from local start-ups and the global demand for remote technical talent,” says Google.

The entry of the Big talents has seen the ecosystem, specifically Kenya has had alot of celebration,  now to wind back on our previous article Startup Founders in Kenya having a hard time fighting BIG TECH when it comes to resources, is taking on another hand since it’s the tech geniuses having the upper hand,  but does it come with a softer landing  ? maybe yes but skills are not easy to catch up with, alot of companies have been paying peple peanuts but this is far much beyond finances on the other hand.

The very morning Google announced it’s PDC launch no sooner than later the kenyan education system provided a clear way for coding to be taught in schools by providing a curriculum for Priimary and Secondary schools, now watch this statement “In the past, coding was conceived as a high-level activity, yet children can start engaging in early learning levels, the program will involve practical lessons,” Prof. Charles Ong’ondo said.

Although late in the journey of embracing the Tech culturein Schools, it might be of impact in the later years however their resonance of coding might be mutilating on career paths of the children, on hearing such remarks “When students learn to code, they can become producers in this 21st century digital age rather than merely consume what is created by others,” he said.

Now, yes that is a great initiative for a late bloomer,I wont curse. Back to the ecosystem, the Entry of these Giants might leap Kenya back to it’s position of being the Silicon savannah Ehem Ehem!Let’s tracck back to where the Kenyan space manage to have it ‘LOST‘ , for those of us who grew up in the hands of Andela and Ihub 1.0, Startups with powers did erupt, accelerators were everywhere hovering around these zones, In this Era of Moringa and the so like code schools we are however facing some shortage of founders who disrupt, this leading to coders who are only leaning towards the let’s do to get employed in the bigger space notion. Yes the journey is tough however the graph of Nigerian startups compared to Kenyan up the higher chain is very minimal excluding potential MarketForce and Wasoko.

However , yes the market should and Must be disrupted, I think Companies in Keneya will just face a talent renumeration strategy because this war is Lost!  though looking back in past these companies did invest in startups that had promising Ideas either in the future or in the long run, with solutions like Funding for Black Founders by Google, startups can leverage on that, but knowing very well Thes big heads might steal alot of talent, they might also have seen a gap in our ‘founding capability’ or creative solution of the next space  be it Fintech, IOT  or any other field that has ventured in Kenya.

Across Africa, local and multinational corporations, as well as governments, have been launching innovation centres as a means to develop new products through collaborations and to remain globally competitive. Last month, Microsoft launched a new office for its African Development Centre in Lagos, it’ll house the company’s product engineering, ecosystem development and innovation teams. In 2021, Huawei also announced its intention to build an innovation and research centre in Tunisia.

We need to move fast to make use of these companies resources as much as they use us,  oh hey! don’t crusify me.  The launch of these innovation hubs  serves as a boost to the African tech ecosystem as it’ll encourage the creation, development, and implementation of novel ideas.

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