Technology development centre to be built in Kenya by Microsoft
“Microsoft, the American technology giant, has revealed plans to set up an African technology development centre in Kenya”. Gaming Vice President, Phil Spencer, announced this on Monday.
Spencer made this claim at a meeting hosted by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta at the State House. The meeting was attended by top executives of Microsoft. Present was Mike Fortin, the Corporate Vice President for Engineering; and Sarah Bond, the Corporate Vice President for Xbox.
The technology centre will be Microsoft’s 7th globally and will be the corporation’s gateway to the region. Even more, it will carry huge potential for jobs and business opportunities for tech-savvy Kenyan youths in the various ICT specializations.
Spencer said the new development sites carry great budding for talent growth and technology transfer among Africa’s youth. This is especially so in countries with good ICT literacy ratings such as Kenya. It was totaled that the corporation would be hiring 100 local engineers for a start.
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President Kenyatta received the new initiative and assured Microsoft of his full support.
“You can count on my 100 percent support. I want this to be a transparent partnership that benefits Microsoft and Kenyans greatly. We want you to make Kenya your African home,” President Kenyatta said.
According to Microsoft, the Africa Development Centre will be a high hub of engineering for the US technology company and its affiliates.
The centre will influence variety of the regional landscape to build world-class talent capable of creating innovative solutions for global impact.
Furthermore, the centre is expected to create a collaborative engineering facilitator for new technology investments in Kenya.
Spencer said that the African development centers will subsidize Microsoft’s interests across global businesses such as Office, Azure and Windows.
Besides Nairobi, Microsoft has reserved Nigeria as the other beneficiary of a similar facility on the continent to serve West Africa.
