Over the next five years, the tech giant will spend more than $100 million on the endeavor. The company will open initial offices in Nairobi, Kenya and Lagos, Nigeria, hiring 100 employees by the end of the year. Microsoft will bring a total of 500 new employees on board within four years.
The Africa Development Centre (ADC) “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. 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,” said Phil Spencer, executive sponsor of the ADC and executive vice president at Microsoft, in a press release.
The company revealed that it is also partnering with local universities to create a modern intelligent edge and cloud curriculum, giving graduates access to the ADC, which will enable them to develop careers in data science, AI, mixed reality, application development and more. The goal is for these graduates to become Microsoft employees.
“Our desire is to recruit exceptional…
