Microsoft inaugurates Africa Development Centre in Nairobi, Kenya

Microsoft CVP Michael Fortin & Phil Spencer in Nairobi at the Launch event.

Africa Development Centre Launch

Today at a media event in Nairobi, Microsoft executives introduced a special development in Kenya. But more importantly for the African continent as a whole. Microsoft launched its first Development Centre in Africa; the Africa Development Centre.

It will have two initial team sites located in Nairobi, Kenya and Lagos, Nigeria. The Africa Development Centre(ADC) sites become the seventh and eighth Microsoft development centres sites globally. Microsoft’s other development centres sites are located in China, India, Israel, Vancouver, Boston and Silicon Valley in San Francisco.

Our new Microsoft Africa Development Center will be at the forefront of building innovative solutions that benefit Africa − and the entire world. – Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO

Microsoft ADC

Microsoft says the;

“ADC will serve as a premier centre of engineering for Microsoft. Where world class African talent can create solutions for local and global impact“.

Microsoft’s Executive Vice President Gaming, Phil Spencer will be the executive sponsor of the Africa Development Center. Speaking at the launch event he said “We are listening more than we are speaking. We want your input and feedback on what we need to do in order to help the market here succeed.
We are committed for the long term, to be in partnership with you in helping us grow. Incredible market with amazing talent the universities are putting out“.

He shares this about the project;

“The ADC will be unlike any other existing investment on the continent. It will help us better listen to our customers, develop locally and scale for global impact. Beyond that, it’s an opportunity to engage further with partners, academia, governments and developers – driving impact in sectors important to the continent, such as FinTech, AgriTech and OffGrid energy.” – Phil Spencer

ADC Investment

The ADC will have two teams, the Microsoft Cognition team and the Microsoft Windows Team. With the Congnition team based in Lagos, Nigeria and the Windows team in Nairobi, kenya.

Microsoft is marking a new milestone with this investment in Africa. A $100 million combined expected investment of infrastructure and employment of local qualified engineers. Microsoft will recruit world class African Software Engineers to the sites. Learn how to be part of the Africa Development Center. The development centre website is still under construction and yet to publish new roles.

On what the teams will be doing, Microsoft shares these details.

“Our Microsoft Cognition team and Windows’ team will be kickstarting our ADC efforts, focusing on AI-enabled cloud services, mixed reality experiences and rich applications that power the intelligent edge without disruption.”

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