Microsoft is announcing the appointment of Phyllis Migwi as the new Kenya Country Manager. She will head the company’s operations in Kenya and develop and maintain relationships across Microsoft’s subsidiaries. She takes over from Kendi Ntwiga-Nderitu who took up a new role as the Global Head of Misrepresentation for Meta.
I am thrilled at the opportunity to play my part in Africa’s economic growth story, Phyllis shares. To position Microsoft as the premier partner for that growth, while developing the leaders who will overcome present challenges and build memorials for the future, she adds.
Phyllis holds an MBA from Hult International Business School and a Bachelor of Commerce from the Catholic University of East Africa. Before this role, she spent more than 12 years in various positions at IBM across Kenya, Ireland and the USA. In her last role at IBM, she served as the Regional head for Hybrid Cloud & AI – Africa Growth Market. She also previously held leadership roles in Fast Moving Consumer Goods and Information Communication Technology sectors in India, Europe, Africa and North America. Phyllis is also the recipient of the 2015 CfC Stanbic Bank Rising Star award for the ICT sector.
I am delighted to welcome Phyllis Migwi to the Microsoft Africa Regional Cluster team as the new Kenya Country Manager, notes Wael Elkabbany, Microsoft Africa Regional Cluster General Manager speaking about her appointment.
I am confident that her extensive experience in Technology in Africa will help us scale partner and customer business impact through the value of Microsoft Cloud. As a strong advocate of Africa’s potential, I believe that Phyllis is a critical addition in unlocking the unique opportunities on the continent.
Wael Elkabbany, Microsoft Africa Regional Cluster General Manager
She’s passionate about delivering efficient business models, growth strategies and ecosystem value creation.
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As part of plans to showcase the talent pool in Africa, Microsoft through its University Recruiting program and Africans at Microsoft is hiring final-year students and recent university graduates from across Africa into full-time engineering roles at Microsoft. The Microsoft African University Recruitment Program for recent graduate engineers will provide successful candidates with relocation to the USA and Canada.
Interested persons who will like to apply should have recently graduated from the university or will be graduating by 2023. Here are the qualifications you will need to meet.
Open to relocating to USA or Canada
Pursuing or recently completed a bachelor’s or master’s degree in engineering, computer science, or related field.
One year of programming experience in an object-oriented language (C, C#, C++, Java, Python).
Ability to demonstrate an understanding of computer science fundamentals, including data structures and algorithms.
Activities that will give you an edge include experience building software outside of the classroom environment like an internship, hackathon, or research project. As well as showing the ability to work in a team and effective time management.
Microsoft started the program in 2017 dubbed Africa to Redmond; Hack for Africa. For its first iteration, Microsoft University Recruiting and Africans at Microsoft selected five universities on the continent to recruit from. University of Nairobi (Kenya), University of Lagos (Nigeria), Ashesi University (Ghana), Makerere University (Uganda), and University of Cape Town (South Africa).
The Microsoft Team is organizing free virtual resume workshops to help interested persons prepare for the application process. Where they will provide information on Microsoft’s recruitment program, share tips on how to make your application stand out, and answer your questions. The free resume workshop will take place at different times depending on your country. Here are a few below:
During the workshop, Microsoft recruiters will share more on the recruitment process. But it usually takes place in three phases and will look something like this. It starts with an online coding challenge. A panel will then review the entries and select applicants for the next stage. The selected candidates will have an in-person or virtual interview. Finally, a successful candidate from the three steps will join Microsoft for a full-time position. The candidate will be assigned to an engineering team once they accept the offer.
Don’t forget to kindly share this opportunity with your friends or anyone this might help so they don’t miss out.
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GitHub announces the availability of GitHub Sponsors in 30 new regions including six located in Africa. The GitHub initiative is now available to open source developers and organizations in Kenya, Gambia, Egypt, South Africa, Tunisia and Morocco. Developers and creators located in these countries can start receiving financial support for their work.
GitHub says there is no waitlist and anyone in these countries with a bank account can sign up right away. All you have to do is to create a GitHub Sponsors profile. Check this post out on how to create a profile. Alternatively, if you were on the waitlist you are now automatically in the program. You should see an email in your inbox welcoming you to the program. Anyone can sponsor, but you must reside in a supported region to receive funds.
we are here to support the humans behind human progress
GitHub Sponsors is an initiative by GitHub that allows anyone who contributes to open source to receive financial support. It is built for funding all types of work that advance open source software. Providing opportunities to participate in and build on open source, either through code, documentation, design, technical writing, mentorship, etc. It also provides a platform for the developer community to financially support the people and organizations who design, build, and maintain the open source projects they depend on, directly on GitHub.
GitHub says financially supporting the people who build and maintain open source is key to ensuring a healthy and sustainable open source ecosystem. The announcement makes the initiative now available in 68 countries or regions.
Through the GitHub Sponsors explore tool, GitHub has made it easy for anyone across the world to discover projects and maintainers and support them.
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Safaricom is partnering with technology sector partners such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon(AWS) to launch the Digital Talent Program to address talent supply shortage and mismatch and create a sustainable talent pipeline to position Kenya as the leading hub for tech talent in Africa. The program plans to upskill 1,000 participants based on the digital skills currently in high demand in its first year.
The Safaricom Digital Talent program seeks to develop digital skills in the market by taking a sustainable approach to creating a healthy digital talent pipeline. It will focus on nine priority skill areas; UI/UX design; Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning; IoT; Big Data and Analytics; Cyber Security; Cloud Computing; Fintech; Robotics Process Automation; and Software Engineering.
The program will be delivered through a hybrid approach including classroom learning, mentorship, and internships for the experiential part of the learning. It will also involve hackathons, fireside chats, guest lecture sessions, incubation, career fairs, annual awards, curriculum reviews, placements, and certifications.
We believe that Africa should not only be a consumer of technology but also a hub for local talent, says Catherine Muraga Microsoft Africa Development Center Managing Director. “We can make a contribution to shaping and innovating the world. Kenya has a huge talent pool of competent and capable developers. That is why Microsoft and other tech companies are setting up their Africa operations here“, she adds.
The Safaricom Digital Talent Program has 30 partners including Microsoft, Google, IBM, Huawei, Oracle and Dell. It also includes 6 Universities, 14 Training Partners, 5 Tech-Hubs and community organizations, 7 Government agencies and 14 industry players.
Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom CEO, notes the program is to position Kenya as the leading hub for tech talent in Africa.
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PayInc Group Limited, trading as PayAngel is announcing its selection into the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub program. A Microsoft program that seeks to remove traditional barriers that startups face when building a company. PayAngel believes the program will help them innovate faster and accelerate their growth. The company offers remittance and payment solutions to the African Diaspora.
Microsoft Africa Transformation Office in March this year launched the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub in new initiatives to accelerate the growth of 10,000 African startups and fast-track investment in Africa’s start-up ecosystem. It is a new digital and all-inclusive platform that gives startups free access to Microsoft technology, tools, coaching, and support to build and scale their business. It also includes opportunities for the startups to sell to Microsoft’s corporate and enterprise customers.
Jones Amegbor, CEO of PayAngel, notes that the exclusive technology packages in the Hub will allow the company to innovate faster and accelerate its growth.
“What this means to our existing and new customers is a more robust, secured and enhanced system, expansion to other territories and straight-through service delivery”.
Beyond access to technology, the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub program empowers young entrepreneurs to innovate and grow by connecting through their mentoring program. Which provides them with industry, business, and technical support to guide them through their next business milestones.
Founders also get access to Microsoft Learn and a variety of programs to help them build connections with customers and accelerate their growth.
The Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub centres around these three key areas:
Unlocking innovations for all: The platform eliminates traditional barriers founders face when starting, such as venture capital requirements or third-party validation to help any founder, regardless of background, location, or access, to be successful.
Technology benefits that grow: Keeping pace with a startup’s lifecycle, the platform helps founders speed development with free access to GitHub and the Microsoft Cloud with the ability to unlock additional benefits over time
Access to mentorship and guidance: Through the platform, startups can connect with industry veterans, access tailored startup-centric training and innovate quickly with expert technical guidance.
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