Microso is Leading Big Tech’s Push to Relocate African Developers to North America

Microsof t is Leading Big Tech’s Push to Relocate African Developers to North America

By Alexander Onukwue

African developers are in global demand

Microsoft and Amazon may simply be seeking a slice of an already globalizing African software engineering workforce since four out of ten developers in Africa work for at least one company based outside of the continent.

With the so-called Great Resignation of the last two years, “there’s a global shortage of talent and people are recognizing Africa as a source of talent,” says Chika Nwobi, founder and CEO of Decagon, a Nigerian company that runs cohortbased software engineering training programs. He is certain that Big Tech companies will fi nd the quality of talent they need in Nigeria because of the growth in expertise that has led to a vibrant tech-driven fi nancial services ecosystem.

“We may not have that many engineers who can operate at the scale of these large companies, but that’s just an implementation hurdle that’s easy to hop over, at the risk of trivializing it,” says Justin Irabor, a developer who works remotely in Nigeria for a European company. “As with all kinds of professions, there is a wide variation of talent quality, but I strongly believe we have good engineers here.”

By going directly to universities for candidates that do not necessarily have years of experience, Microsoft’s betting on the diff usion of the innovation buzz from African tech companies and communities typically based in cities like Lagos, Nairobi, and Kigali to other parts of each country. The Windows maker may have to thank its competitor, Google, whose developer groups on campuses have become a key channel introducing young African undergraduates to the world of software development.

A credit to African universities?

Many of the students that may apply to join Microsoft from Nigeria are probably at home due to a strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the union for lecturers in governmentowned universities, now in its seventh month. There’s no end in sight.

Still, it is a sign of the maturing computer science programs in some schools in Africa that one of the world’s biggest companies is seeking students or recent graduates. Africa’s top universities for engineering and computer science are in Egypt and Tunisia, according to the US News and World Report’s 2022 ranking. Greater Big Tech interest could be the catalyst for schools in other parts of the continent to compete for places on such rankings in the future. https://fi nance.yahoo.com/news/microsoftleading-big-tech-push-110700389.html

Ugandan Online TV Bridges Information Gap for the Deaf

By Elias Biryabarema

▲ Professional sign language interpreter and Productions Lead at Signs TV Uganda Susan Mujaawa, outside their studios. ►Professional sign Language interpreter Jonan Opori, Productions Lead at Signs TV Uganda Susan Mujaawa and Signs TV Uganda Team Leader Simon Eropu at their studio in Kabalagala suburb of Kampala, Uganda July 18, 2022. REUTERS/Abubaker Lubowa REUTERS/Abubaker Lubowa

WHEN SUSAN MUJAWA ANANDA heard a deaf man had been shot and wounded in Uganda for breaking a curfew during the pandemic his family said he knew nothing about, she resolved to set up an online television channel for deaf people. "The reason why he was shot ... is because he didn't know what was happening in the country. He didn't know that there was a curfew," Ananda, a sign language interpreter, told Reuters.

Late last year, she teamed up with a deaf friend, Simon Eroku, and after winning a grant they founded SignsTV, which runs news bulletins for deaf people, delivered by deaf people.

Slightly over a million people in Uganda, out of a total population of about 45 million, have a hearing disability and most of them have limited access to TV news due to a lack of sign language services on established channels.

The new station, which made its fi rst broadcast in April and employs eight staff including four deaf anchors, operates from a studio in a Kampala suburb.

In a typical broadcast on SignsTV Uganda, the news is read by two deaf anchors and simultaneously signed by a sign language interpreter, going slowly to match the anchor's pace, while the screen also carries subtitles.

The deaf man whose story moved Ananda to act, was shot in the leg in a village in northern Uganda in April 2020, by a member of the Local Defence Unit (LDU), a para military force that sometimes operates alongside regular police and the military. His leg later had to be amputated. Police at the time told local media they would investigate. They were not available for new comment on the case.

For now, SignsTV Uganda produces only one weekly news roundup on Saturdays due to fi nancial, staffi ng and technical constraints, but Ananda said it had ambitions to expand its off er. Up to about 800 viewers have watched individual bulletins so far and the numbers are growing. "We want to have sports, we want to have talkshows, we want to have news," she said, adding music could also be a possibility. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/ ugandan-online-tv-bridges-information-gapdeaf-2022-08-04/