Microsoft Launches $100m Development Centres In Nairobi and Lagos

          

In a meeting at State House, Nairobi; Vice President for Gaming, Phil Spencer, confirmed that the development centre will be situated in the East African region.

Besides Nairobi, Nigeria has been earmarked as the other beneficiary of a similar facility on the continent to serve West Africa.

Phil Spencer reports that the corporation is witnessing exciting changes to the technological landscape in Africa:

“The African Development Centres will contribute to Microsoft’s interests across global businesses such as Office, Azure and Windows among others.”

100 new engineering jobs are to be created, and the centre is also expected to establish a collaborative engineering springboard for new technology investments in Kenya.

 “You can count on my 100 per cent support. I want this to be a transparent partnership that benefits Microsoft and Kenyans. We want you to make Kenya your African home,” President Kenyatta said.

President Kenyatta wishes for Microsoft to democratise innovation in the digital space, starting off with expanding the range of African languages that can be used online.

President Uhuru Kenyatta said he fully supports and welcomes Microsoft to open their next development centre in Kenya.

The Head of State wants Microsoft to ensure the protection of workers’ intellectual property rights, “ensure we do not lose the intellectual property rights that belong to our young people. We need an open and transparent partnership.”

The Africa Development Centre is expected to be a premier hub of engineering, which will leverage the diversity of the regional landscape to build world-class talent, capable of creating innovative solutions for global impact.