According to reports, Kenyan companies are facing new challenges with regards to retaining and enlisting top talents. This is as a result of the increased participation of United States (US) technology behemoths including Amazon, Google and Microsoft on the African continent through more employment situations and better pay as they move to gain more market share in Africa.
Amazon, Google and Microsoft have intensified their entry into the Eastern part of Africa and made Kenya one of their main focuses. This has resulted in a more concentrated hiring round with new Principal Technology Specialist employees getting paid as much as 1.8 million Kenyan Shillings each month.
For Junior Tech Developers they are now getting anything from 300,000 Kenyan Shillings per month, with mid level tech developers getting paid around 500,000 Kenyan Shillings per month.
Senior and Lead role employees are now getting paid around 1.3 million Kenyan Shillings per month and 800,000 Kenyan Shillings per month respectively.
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Due to this, companies like Flocash, Lori Systems, Wasoko (one of the fastest growing companies in Africa, which transforms access to essential services and goods across the continent), Sendy, and Twiga Foods (a technology-driven company that connects consumers, vendors and suppliers, providing access to high quality foods, products and retail services in Africa) which had trained and made the earlier investments into the engineers, are now having to contend with the ‘Big Three’.
While the bright side of the scramble for talent is that employees are getting paid significantly more than before the downside, is that the business plans utilized by smaller foreign tech firms and Kenyan companies alike are getting shaken up.
Although banks and the top telecommunications companies in Kenya have until now being viewed as the best paying employers in the country, they have also lost some of their top staff to Amazon, Google and Microsoft.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of WPP Scangroup; Patricia Ithau stated that, “You know, what’s happening in this market across all of us. We have some people called Microsoft, Amazon, Google who are just mopping up our developers.”
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) added that, “We have a programme we recruit from the university two, three months, they come in from college, and you offer them a hundred. Google tells them two hundred, there’s nothing you’re going to do. They’re going to go. And then they go from Google. Microsoft offers them three hundred, they’ll move. So until we start creating a lot more talent, it is the way of the world.”
Over the past couple of years Amazon, Google and Microsoft have continued to expand their level of investment into the African continent in various moves aimed at increasing the economies through growing the rates of access rates to the internet by a population that is youthful.
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The three (3) technology giants are using South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria as the focal points for their larger market share plays in Africa.
In April of 2022, American multinational technology company; Google announced the launch of its Africa Development Centre in Kenya’s capital; Nairobi. The Product development centre which is the first in Africa, is one of Google’s moves aimed at properly catering to its increasing internet user base in Africa.
Google which specializes in search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics, will be employing researchers, product managers, engineers and user experience designers as part of the staff at the product development centre in Kenya.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Google; Sundar Pichai made it known in October 2021 that the company will be investing 1 billion United States Dollars (USD) which is around 125 billion Kenyan Shillings, in a number of projects in Africa over a period of five (5) years. The projects will be aimed at boosting the digital evolution of the economies on the continent.
Microsoft on the other hand, has been investing in technology development focal points in Kenya and Nigeria. It has so far, put in a total of 1.25 billion Kenyan Shillings and employed hundreds of engineers in both Kenya and Nigeria.
The talent on ground will help the company further tailor its applications for the market in Africa and also help it create new applications and services.
In 2019, it launched its engineering hub called the Africa Development Centre (ADC) in Nairobi, Kenya. It also pledged that by 2023, it will have created and filled a total of 500 software engineering roles at the Nairobi facility and another facility in Lagos.
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In March of 2022 American multinational technology corporation; Microsoft, has increased its employees working full time at the Africa Development Centre (ADC) in Nairobi, Kenya on machine learning, software engineering, data science, and other fields to a current standing of more than 450.
The former Managing Director of the Africa Development Centre (ADC); Jack Ngare stated during the launch that, “The facility will continue our efforts towards training, equipping and hiring engineering talent in Kenya and Africa.”
The Country General Manager for Microsoft Kenya; Phyllis Migwi believes that apart from the monetary benefits, multinationals also offer open minded working environment as well as opportunities for young people to make an impact.
In her words, “Microsoft offers a diverse and inclusive environment, as we believe that our continued success depends on the diverse skills, experiences and backgrounds that our employees bring to the company.”
Kenyan companies have in response, had to adapt and change up the recruitment strategies. This includes entering into partnerships with independent developers and also creating various training programs aimed at increasing their staff numbers.
In 2022 alone telecommunications giant; Safaricom, has employed a total of 400 software developers at a time when it is looking to further increase its capacity to effectively operate its business which is currently quite digitized.
The decision by Safaricom, is also an indication of the current increase in demand for talent technology practitioners especially as more and more global technology companies continue their entry into the Kenyan market.
According to reports new employees made up a total of 6.4 percent of Safaricom’s 6,230 contracted employees, temporary employees, and permanent employees as at the end of 2022. It is another indicator of the aggressive acquisition of workers who are really technologically literate.
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The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Safaricom; Peter Ndegwa stated that the telecommunications company also has a network of more than 42,000 independent developers.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) added that Safaricom will be looking to hire developers from learning institutions directly and at the same time, play a role in guiding the curriculum in order to have a much broader array of talented potential employees in the future.
In his words, “We will be announcing soon that we are going to be partnering with other tech companies and universities to influence curriculum, certification of developers, and also internships so that we also develop talent for the industry in the same way lawyers and accountants are developed.”
While more technology behemoths are actively employing more talents as they look to expand on the African continent, a number of African start up companies are working towards using technology as a way to overcome the challenges faced by consumers and businesses alike. This has also increased the demand for more hires.
Sadly, observers believe that the African start up companies are facing challenges with regards to employing and retaining new staff due to the entry of the global giants into the market.
According to a recently developed report which puts Nairobi, Kenya as the third biggest hub for the fastest growing companies on the African continent, smaller Kenyan companies that use technology to cater to underserved markets have now become the quickest growing businesses in Africa.
The first Financial Times (FT) annual ranking of the fastest growing companies in Africa revealed that 10 of the total 75 companies, are here in Kenya.
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Excluding agricultural inputs distributor; East African Business Company Ltd and popular Kenyan supermarket chain; Quick Mart, the fast growing Kenyan companies on Financial Times (FT)‘s list also included two companies which are leading the continent and utilizing technology with regards to the products they offer.
Wasoko; a platform which transforms access to essential services and goods across the continent and delivers quick moving consumer goods to shops and stalls in Kenya’s informal markets that are to some extent fragmented, was on Financial Times (FT)’s inaugural survey ranked the fastest growing business in Africa.
Wasoko which was previously called Sokowatch changed its name in March of 2021 after it successfully raised 125 million United States Dollars (USD) which is around 15.1 billion Kenyan Shillings for the first phase of its expansion; Series B funding. It had the highest Compounded Annual Growth (CAGR) in revenues of 346.2 percent in four (4) years through 2020.
In 2020 the company; Wasoko which also provides a line of credit to retailers increased its revenue to around 27.4 million United States Dollars (USD) which is around 3.3 billion Kenyan Shillings. This is significantly higher than the 300,000 United States Dollars (USD) (which is around 36.26 million Kenyan Shillings) that it raised in 2017.
During the period under review Wasoko also increased its total employees from 57 to 372.
Flocash which is a leading provider of content services, payment services and distribution services to financial institutions, businesses, and consumers, was named second on the Financial Times (FT) list. It achieved an average annual revenue growth of 274.70 percent to hit 6.4 million United States Dollars (USD) (which is around 773.4 million Kenyan Shillings) in 2020. This was significantly higher than the 100,000 United States Dollars (USD) (which is around 12.08 million Kenyan Shillings) it achieved four (4) years before.
Flocash which predominantly operates in Africa and the Middle East, had a total employee count of 20 in 2017. It now has 82 employees.
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The third (3rd) Kenyan company listed in the Top 10 of Financial Times (FT) fastest growing companies in Africa, is Lori Systems with an overall position of seventh (7th).
Lori Systems which is a company that provides venture-backed start-up building the cutting-edge logistics infrastructure for trucking in Africa, saw its revenue during the period in review rise from 2.9 million United States Dollars (USD) (which is around 350.5 million Kenyan Shillings), to 25 million United States Dollars (USD) (which is around 3.02 billion Kenyan Shillings). This signified a Compounded Annual Growth (CAGR) of 105.10 percent.
The company also increased its employee count from 20 employees in 2017, to 142 employees as at the time this article was being put together.
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