By Spy Uganda Correspondent
US tech giant Google is investing in its first African product development center in Nairobi as part of the tech firm’s sh115.5bn investment in the continent over the next five years.
The California-based company announced in a statement Tuesday that the new product development center will help create transformative products and services for people in Africa and around the world and offer job opportunities “for visionary engineers, product managers, designers, and UX researchers” lay the groundwork for significant growth in the coming years.
The announcement follows Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s pledge last year that the company plans to invest Sh115.5 billion as part of its Africa digital transformation program.
Google said the program will increase fast and cheap Internet access, support local entrepreneurs and SMEs, and help non-profit organizations.
“Google’s mission in Africa is to make the Internet useful to Africans and to partner with African governments, policymakers, educators, entrepreneurs, and businesses to shape the next wave of innovation in Africa,” Google’s vice president of products said on Tuesday.
“Today I am excited to welcome all Africans who are passionate about improving the digital experience for African users by creating better products to apply for open positions at our first Product Development Center in Africa.”
Ms. Frey said the company is already hiring engineers, product managers, user experience designers, and researchers to staff the new center.
The firm also opened an artificial intelligence center last year in the Ghanaian capital Accra.
“Africa’s potential to become a leading digital economy is on the horizon and Google is committed to accelerating Africa’s digital transformation through human capital and enabling African-led solutions to African and global problems through better products,” said the general director of Google for Africa Nitin Gajria said during the inauguration.
Google’s new investment underscores Nairobi’s emergence as a regional tech hub following the unveiling of 3bn shillings worth of Microsoft’s office and labs for its main engineering hub, the African Development Center (ADC), after three years of operations in the country.
The Microsoft facility, one of the largest software engineering centers in Africa, has research, design, engineering and innovation teams, as well as an incubation center designed to scale technology innovation on the continent.
