American-based outsourcing technology firm Andela has announced expansion of its operations across Africa. The company operates in Rwanda where it has its pan-African hub, which was established in partnership with the Government. It also operates in Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, and Egypt, training technology engineers and outsourcing them to global companies. Andela said it will now accept engineers from all African countries, expanding its presence from six countries to the entire continent. In doing so, the company will double its existing talent pool to more than 500,000 engineers. It says it will increase the variety of skills and experience levels available to companies all over the world. Andela-trained software engineers work for companies such as Cloudflare, Wellio, ViacomCBS, and Women Who Code. The announcement will further enable companies that work with Andela to source the talent they need, when they need it, by providing access to additional talent pools across the continent with an even greater diversity of skills and backgrounds. Jeremy Johnson, the company’s chief executive said on Wednesday, July 1 that the decision was informed by the belief that the continent has a wide pool of talent that firms can leverage. “We know that there are extremely talented engineers across Africa and we believe that opportunity should not be limited by proximity to a major tech hub,” he said. “Being a remote-first engineering organisation allows us to open up access to Andela for engineers across the continent,” By removing restrictions on location, he added, Andela will double our pool of potential talent to the roughly 500,000 engineers in Africa who can now leverage Andela to work with top international engineering teams. Andela seeks to break down the barriers that prevent talent and opportunity from connecting by providing an easier, more efficient way for companies to scale global engineering teams. Johnson asserted that high growth companies in the US continue to need more engineering, despite the covid-19 induced economic downturn. “The world is beginning to realize that remote work is going to be a major catalyst for the democratization of opportunity,” he said in a statement.
