Why local companies must bet big on tech

Recently, a group of 1,000 students graduated in the tech field. All were students of Power Learn Project (PLP), an organisation whose goal is to train one million software developers in Africa by 2027.

While it sounds like a lofty goal, the fact is that there is a high demand for digital skills in Africa.

230 million jobs in sub-Saharan Africa will require some level of digital skills by 2030, according to a study by the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

That is a 130-billion-dollar market, meaning that there is a lot of opportunity in the field.

In addition, 2.9 billion people lack internet connectivity, a third of whom come from Africa. Kenya is, however, in a better place than many African countries in terms of internet connectivity, according to Susan Silantoi, CEC Inclusivity, Public Participation and Customer Service in Nairobi county.

Speaking to Enterprise, she says that Kenya has one of the best internet connectivity in Africa with high penetration.

"There is a lot of potential in how we take up the technology. M-Pesa is one of the biggest examples of how Kenyans are receptive to tech solutions," she says.

The county minister adds that tech is the new frontier, the solution for almost everything, so the government is very keen on it.

"From a government perspective, the more innovative we are, the more we can use those innovative ideas to sort out the problems that we have."

"It means having efficient mobility through the use of tech, having efficient public service delivery and customer service also through the use of tech, just to make sure that we automate many of our processes. That way, we're able to account for it and also have visibility of what is being done, how can we fix it and improve on our response time," she says.

Students usually have the desire to acquire these highly sought-after skills but lack the finances to do so, as tech training tends to be very costly and therefore usually reserved for a select few. PLP however offers training on software development for free, and in addition, helps students secure jobs globally afterwards.

John Kamara, a tech entrepreneur and PLP chairman, says that the goal is to create capacity and talent that allows Africa to participate in the fourth industrial revolution.

"To do that, we have to acquire education and provide knowledge so the whole goal of PLP is to create the foundation for the education and the skills we need to actually participate in this fourth industrial revolution, and that's why we launched PLP this year," he says.

"Off the back of that, a lot of things will have a ripple effect. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will be developed, start-ups will be developed and we will also export talent from Africa to the rest of the world. More importantly, we will create jobs and revenue models for countries using talent as the baseline of our ecosystem."

The program started in Kenya but is also now in South Africa, Rwanda, Nigeria, Ghana and Zambia despite having been launched less than a year ago, with the second cohort having already been selected.

The high uptake may be that while most training programmes end at graduation, despite being already free, PLP also tries to help students secure jobs afterwards.

"Training is hope and most people can't do much with hope. We are focused on also helping find a tangible outcome for them. Doing that means we're also engaging with so many different start-ups here to provide internships for people, to provide opportunity and we also have quite a number of them who have gotten global jobs now. We also set up a whole agency to help them find opportunities," says Kamara.

The qualification for the program is having the will to succeed, with a desire to want to change one's life.

"We're trying to upscale the greatest number of people to be adept at software development. I would say our sweet spot is maybe between the ages of 18 and 40 or so but that doesn't mean that younger folks can't benefit from this program and also older folks who are looking to get into the digital space," says Ahmed Amer, CEO of Emurgo Africa, who are one of the partners funding the project.

"In this day and age, people shift careers at least twice in their lifetimes. In the generations before us, people stayed in the same job for 40 or 50 years but now people have three of four careers in their lifetimes, so why not?"

Kamara says that Kenya is in a fortunate position tech-wise as there is a lot happening in the country because of the enabling environment that the country has provided for people who want to participate in the digital ecosystem and in digital growth, among other things.

"I can travel easily to Kenya, I can set up a business here, there is access to some level of infrastructure, there is stability, there is trade, there are policies that make sense. That is making a lot of people come to Kenya, which is why when we do come to Africa and think, 'Where do we start first?' We start here," he says.

Amer, whose company, Emurgo, has also set up in Kenya, agrees with this. "We believe that Kenya is the right place to set up our operations in Africa. The infrastructure, the zeal, the ease of doing business, the soft landing - we're firm believers in starting off in Kenya as the right spot and that's why we've set up here," he says.

Silantoi says that the government is actively promoting ICT, a docket which they have renamed to Innovation and Digital Economy in order to function better.

"We'll definitely invest quite a bit in having more training done and in creating hubs and spaces where young people can access the internet and facilities that will allow them to explore their talent. Another great potential that we have is in the gaming space," she says.

"Africa is an untapped resource and we've been dealt very difficult cards but we still continue to find ways to be resilient and find ways to innovate."