When the world was busy developing technology some decades ago, Africa slumbered and was left into the analogue world. Fast forward, the continent is forming its own revolution in technological development as it tries to catch up with the rest of the region.
In Kenya for example, M-Pesa, Kenya's mobile payment system, has revolutionized mobile technology solution for millions and thereby providing many people with access to banking services wherever they are.
The local innovations have since propelled Kenya to be ranked third in Sub-Saharan Africa in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2018 coming after South Africa and Mauritius and 80 globally.
Catherine Kimani, a software engineer at Andela is in agreement that young developers have the potential to create solutions for Africans if encouraged to use their skills and intelligence.
Catherine is a beneficiary of the Andela programme that identifies and nurture talent in software development. A first class BA graduate in computer software engineering from Kenyatta University, she has previously developed software that helps farmers acquire seeds from the government, dubbed “Growth Enhancement Scheme’ that is currently being used in Nigeria.
“When a call was made by Andela, I applied, was successful, went through the training and have since graduated to a senior engineer where I also give back by mentoring junior engineers.” Catherine says.
Andela is a tech company that identifies and nurture software developers who in turn combat the global technical challenges through distributing engineering teams around various sectors to create solutions for the particular departments.
Andela was first launched in Nigeria in the year 2014. The company then expanded by placing a call for applications in other African countries. Kenya emerged with over 1,200 applications which showed a lot of tech talent in the country.
Asked how the program works, Janet explains that, “Once a call is made, applicants are taken through a vigorous interview session. When successful applicants get into Andela through the fellowship program, they are offered an employment contract and become Andela employees. During their first 6 months of employment, Andela offers on the job training with an allowance. During the Andela fellowship, the engineers acquire team skills, managerial experience and technical expertise in software languages such as Ruby on Rails, Javascript, Python, Ruby, and React Native amongst others. As they progress in the Fellowship, they also get to advance in their careers moving from junior engineers to senior software engineers.
The company has since expanded to other cities which include Kampala, Kigali, San Francisco and New York City. “We received over 140,000 applications to the Andela Fellowship and hired over 1,300 software engineers, all of whom are now Andela employees.” Says Janet
“Africa has so much untapped talent that if empowered and utilized, they could hold the keys of unlocking solutions for third world countries. There is big need for Africa to solve real problems facing Africans and on a global level” says Janet Maingi, country director at Andela.
Janet Maingi, Country Director at Andela Kenya Office
Janet says Kenya is at the forefront of tech innovation on the continent, giving them a reason not just to hire software engineers who will build innovative products, but also develop tech leaders who are passionate about impacting the ecosystem.
The software engineers work as full time distributed members with leading tech companies around the world in helping solve coding challenges. Andela has one of the largest numbers of engineers in a Kenyan company, with over 400 software engineers.
“Our software engineers work remotely with hundreds of our partner companies around the world and also play an important role in their local ecosystems. Currently, we have over 200 customers paying for access to the engineers .Some of our partners are Safaricom, Github, Invision, Viacom, and Skillshare.” Adds Janet
Janet also adds that Andela is a venture-backed company. In January this year, the company closed a $100M Series D funding, bringing their total venture funding to $180M. Over the last 5 years, Andela has attracted investors including Generation Investment Management, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Serena Ventures, Google Ventures, CRE Ventures and Spark Capital.
Andela has also partnered with tech companies such as Google, Udacity and Pluralsight to provide aspiring software engineers with learning resources through the Andela Learning Community[ALC]. Learners who have gone through ALC have built their own apps, been employed by Andela or other companies, and advanced in their careers among other success stories. Through the ALC program, upto 33,000 people across 17 countries in Africa have been nurtured.
However, just like any other company, Andela faces a challenge of shortage of developers in the market but Janet is quick to respond that the company is always innovating and adopting approaches that allows them attract the right talent in the continent, adding that, “given our access to incredible talent, Andela is able to provide professionals and the technology to power high performing teams and help companies adopt the distributed model faster.”
During an open discussion of their campaign dubbed “software engineers to the power of X at the Nairobi office, Janet acknowledged the existence of many startups in the country but laments that many of them fail despite there being many incubation centers in Kenya, some which include I Hub, Nailab, IBizAfrica, CD4Lab, M-lab, Biz Africa, among others.
There is need for us to ensure that the startups are well prepared, trained and develop collaborations with them before getting into the market, to ensure they are sustainable,” she adds
Janet says at Andela, applicants need not to be well knowledgeable in tech but must be passionate about what they want to do. “To us, passion is key and we encourage as many young people as possible who feel they may have solutions to local problems to look out on recruitment dates.” She says.
On the future of Andela, Janet says they seek to grow software engineering talent all around the continent. “We are now recruiting mid and senior level engineers. This is an exciting time for us to scale our operations, as the demand for tech professionals, especially ones with experience, is increasing at a rapid pace around the world.” She says
On the future of Andela, Janet says they seek to grow software engineering talent all around the continent. “We are now recruiting mid and senior level engineers. This is an exciting time for us to scale our operations, as the demand for tech professionals, especially ones with experience, is increasing at a rapid pace around the world.” She says
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