Microsoft will be opening a new development center in Kenya and Nigeria to help further the emerging market throughout Africa. The growing young and highly-educated population have unique expertise for future technology. Microsoft is specifically using the Africa Development Center (ADC) in Kenya and Nigeria to focus on developing mixed-reality experiences across all of Windows 10 AR headsets, tablets, laptops, and more.
Africans have expanded the use of Microsoft applications, changing how African communities bank, farm, work, and access healthcare services. Earlier this year, Microsoft opened Africa’s first hyper-scale datacenters in South Africa. With two initial sites in Nairobi, Kenya and Lagos, Nigeria, the ADC will serve as a Microsoft engineering center, focusing on local and global solutions.
As noted by Phil Spencer, executive sponsor of the ADC and executive vice president at Microsoft, the ADC will be “unlike any other existing investment on the continent:”
“It [The ADC] will help us better listen to our customers, develop locally and scale for global impact. 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, AgriTech and OffGrid energy.”
In addition, Microsoft is partnering with local universities to create a modern intelligent edge and cloud curriculum to help build talent from within Africa. Successful graduates will be able to access the ADC to build a career in data science, AI, mixed reality, application development and other emerging technologies. Microsoft aims to hire approximately 100 engineers by the end of 2019 to further its AI, machine learning, mixed reality innovations. By 2023, Microsoft intends to employ more than 500 engineers for a variety of projects. More information is available on the Africa Development Center (ADC) website.
