By FREDRICK OBURA
Enterprise software maker SAP has announced plans to launch its widely successful SAP Skills for Africa Programme in Kenya to spur the country’s IT skills capacity and further enhance technological innovation.
SAP East Africa Managing Director Andrew Waititu that the SAP Skills for Africa Programme is a partnership between SAP and its partners.
“The programme seeks to substantially improve the employability of young, bright recent university graduates with a skew towards those from under-privileged backgrounds. We are also in an advanced phase to establish a programme to sponsor students to become certified SAP Consultants in partnership with local universities,” said Waititu, adding that the programme would be launched in September. He was speaking at the SAP Forum at a Nairobi hotel.
Tech applications
The one-day SAP Forum Nairobi featured focused presentations and demos that offered delegates an in-depth look into the latest technologies, SAP applications and best practices as well as updates on SAP’s global strategy combined with local priorities.
Reaffirming the firm’s customer, Waititu stated that SAP’s East Africa perspective is all about customers. “The East Africa perspective is all about what we are doing locally to empower our customers. Our investment in the region grew by over 40 per cent in the last one year with partners increasing to six and partners are key in driving innovation,” he said.
SAP Africa Chief Executive Mr Pfungwa Serima said that the SAP Kenya office – which serves the entire East Africa - is one of its four business hubs in the continent.
“The plan to launch the Skills for Africa Programme in Kenya is confirmation that Africa is ready for new IT solutions,” said Serima, adding that SAP aims to provide solutions to multinationals as well as small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the region.
Information and communications PS Dr Bitange Ndemo said software development will play a key role in different sectors of the economy, giving the example of Fablab - a research and development space based within the University of Nairobi where innovators engage in rapid prototyping on future products.
“You need to emulate other software developers and assist SMEs to move to other platforms since SAP is involved very deeply in application development. SAP can also aim for instance to supply standardised products to Africa and the world as a whole,” stated Ndemo
