The President of Kenya speaks of a “charm offensive”, William Ruto spent two days traveling through Silicon Valley to remind American giants, like Apple, Microsoft and Google, of his country’s advantages.
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At the beginning of September William Ruto, the Kenyan president, called on green investors from around the world to bet on his country during the first African climate summit. William Ruto was back, Friday and Saturday September 16, to attract tech giants. For many years now, the “Silicon Savannah” has been developing east of Nairobi. A city of the future, a gigantic hotbed of digital innovation that is driving investors from around the world. All Gafam already have their base camp in Nairobi: a development and research center for Microsoft, another for Google and a computer server platform for Amazon.
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Alongside the giants, local start-ups are developing their ideas. Gafam just have to bend down to draw from this broth of innovations, in all sectors: finance, education, agriculture, health. With this special mention for these two self-taught people from the suburbs of Nairobi who, after having designed, during the pandemic, an infrared device to sterilize bank notes, have just released bionic prostheses from electronic waste in March. Kenyan start-ups are popular, with nearly 500 million euros in funds raised in 2022, twice as much as the previous year. Kenya is on its way to overtaking Nigeria which rules the African continent, and this is obviously William Ruto’s objective.
A qualified workforce that benefits GAFAM
In Kenya, from primary school onwards, students learn to type lines of code. Between an English and mathematics course, you are taught computer coding, how to create software or an application. An electoral promise from William Ruto that he kept as soon as he became president. It is therefore young minds, qualified labor that the Kenyan president came to sell to the big bosses of global tech. Tim Cook is apparently attracted since Apple plans to set up its own developer academy in Nairobi.
This qualified and cheap labor represents an undeniable advantage for Gafam. But it is a big obstacle for Kenyan start-ups who cannot match salaries (2,500 euros on average in a national company compared to 10,000 when moving to foreign competition). Young Kenyan developers and their innovations are being absorbed by American giants, 40% of them have already signed with both hands.