Author Archives: Google Africa Blog

Supporting Marginalised People’s Craft with Carakana

While incarcerated at Langata Women’s Prison in Kenya, I discovered a craft which would change my life forever. I had been in prison since 2009 where I was serving time for robbery. I missed my two boys and sister terribly and it was a very difficult time for me.

Portrait of Caroline Wanjiku taken while she

was serving time at Langata Women’s Prison in Nairobi, Kenya



In 2016, Her Excellency Mama Rachel Ruto, the spouse to the Deputy President, visited Langata Prison where, we learned, she would be teaching us a new skill. I was excited that such a prominent person cared about incarcerated people like me and was looking forward to learning a new craft. However, I was also wary as there had been previous projects run in the prisons which took advantage of us and didn’t pay us for our work. I soon enrolled in the Carakana programme, and was taught Cross Stitch by Her Excellency Mama Rachel Ruto and the team from Carakana.


Cross-stitching is very intricate and is one of the oldest forms of embroidery. It uses number codes on a grid of squares marked on a piece of cloth to guide on thread colour and sowing direction, resulting in a pattern of threading that reveals an embedded picture or other artistic representation that would otherwise not be visible to the naked eye.


I have come a long way since 2016 and my first lesson, and I have created a number of beautiful art pieces. The money paid to me for my work helped me to pay school fees for my two boys and my sister and enabled me to care for my upkeep while in prison.

About Carakana Documentary, from the collection of Carakana on Google Arts & Culture (link)




While the financial empowerment that cross stitching has given me and the beauty of the end product are of huge importance, these are not the only reasons I did it. When I was incarcerated, cross stitching brought my fellow inmates and I together. During the times we worked together, we got to share our experiences and found the space and time to help each other in our difficult circumstances. This helped to occupy our minds more with our focus on the stitching and our sense of community and less with the anxious thoughts of our separation from our families and the fate of our court cases. During the night, my sleep came a lot easier after a full day of focused stitching.
 
In 2020 I was released from prison and joined my two boys at home. With the money I saved while in prison I am running a small business. I have Carakana to thank for the life that I am now enjoying.


I am humbled and privileged to have my work, and that of my colleagues, profiled on Google Arts & Culture with Carakana and hope that my story will inspire others. To learn more, visit here or download the Google Arts & Culture app for Android or iOS.


Posted by Caroline Wanjiku, business owner and Carakana beneficiary

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Google helps African SMBs embrace ecommerce

On 27 June, the world marks Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day. It's a day worth celebrating, particularly in Africa, where small companies are the main drivers of  jobs and economic growth. But it also serves as a reminder that small businesses need support to thrive, particularly in the aftermath of the challenges they've endured in the previous two years.


At Google, we’re inspired by small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across Africa and therefore want to help them achieve their business goals and have an array of digital tools, training, and support channels they can use. We've been expanding on that commitment this month with events and activities geared at assisting African SMBs in taking the next step in their ecommerce journey.




Shop Small Business Summit
The Shop Small Summit, our first ecommerce-focused International Small Business Month event, held this week. The one-hour virtual event aimed at helping small business owners improve their knowledge of ecommerce trends in Sub Saharan Africa included key sessions, talks and speeches from speakers from LSETF, KEPSA, MTN, Yoco, Sendy, and Bumpa, an ads marketing masterclass, and announcements about new Google tools and products to support SMBs in Africa.






Dedicated Hustle Academy cohorts
Hustle Academy, our free week-long bootcamp intended to help small and medium-sized businesses get the skills they need to thrive, will host two retail-focused cohorts aimed at on helping small businesses owners acquire the skills to scale and grow their retail operations. We have also been collaborating with local partners such as Bumpa, BidorBuy, PayStack, Orderin and Jiji who provide free web presence maintenance to assist African SMBs in achieving long-term online success.



New digital marketing and e-commerce certificate
In partnership with the well-known open online course provider Coursera, we have designed an online professional certificate course in digital marketing and e-commerce for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) and have made available 1,000 scholarships to Africans who desire to enroll. The certificate program is the most recent in a series of efforts targeted at preparing participants for entry jobs.Find out more at g.co/grow/ecommercecertificate



New Local Opportunity Finder tool
To help local businesses be more discoverable on Google Search, we created the Local Opportunity Finder tool, which analyzes a Google Business Profile and makes personalized recommendations to business owners on how to enhance the way their business profile looks to consumers when they use Google Search. Find out more at g.co/lof/ssa



For the SMBs that can take advantage of it, this ecommerce explosion represents a significant opportunity. As a study by McKinsey points out, it not only allows SMBs to transcend the limits of brick and mortar stores but also to reach new markets more efficiently.


As exciting as it’s been to witness the growth in African ecommerce over the past couple of years, it’s even more exciting to think about how much more room for growth there still is.


We’re excited to be on this journey, and to be providing support to business owners on the continent.



By Mojolaoluwa Aderemi-Makinde, Regional Head Brand and Reputation, Africa - Google




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Google helps African SMBs embrace ecommerce

On 27 June, the world marks Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day. It's a day worth celebrating, particularly in Africa, where small companies are the main drivers of  jobs and economic growth. But it also serves as a reminder that small businesses need support to thrive, particularly in the aftermath of the challenges they've endured in the previous two years.


At Google, we’re inspired by small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across Africa and therefore want to help them achieve their business goals and have an array of digital tools, training, and support channels they can use. We've been expanding on that commitment this month with events and activities geared at assisting African SMBs in taking the next step in their ecommerce journey.




Shop Small Business Summit
The Shop Small Summit, our first ecommerce-focused International Small Business Month event, held this week. The one-hour virtual event aimed at helping small business owners improve their knowledge of ecommerce trends in Sub Saharan Africa included key sessions, talks and speeches from speakers from LSETF, KEPSA, MTN, Yoco, Sendy, and Bumpa, an ads marketing masterclass, and announcements about new Google tools and products to support SMBs in Africa.






Dedicated Hustle Academy cohorts
Hustle Academy, our free week-long bootcamp intended to help small and medium-sized businesses get the skills they need to thrive, will host two retail-focused cohorts aimed at on helping small businesses owners acquire the skills to scale and grow their retail operations. We have also been collaborating with local partners such as Bumpa, BidorBuy, PayStack, Orderin and Jiji who provide free web presence maintenance to assist African SMBs in achieving long-term online success.



New digital marketing and e-commerce certificate
In partnership with the well-known open online course provider Coursera, we have designed an online professional certificate course in digital marketing and e-commerce for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) and have made available 1,000 scholarships to Africans who desire to enroll. The certificate program is the most recent in a series of efforts targeted at preparing participants for entry jobs.Find out more at g.co/grow/ecommercecertificate



New Local Opportunity Finder tool
To help local businesses be more discoverable on Google Search, we created the Local Opportunity Finder tool, which analyzes a Google Business Profile and makes personalized recommendations to business owners on how to enhance the way their business profile looks to consumers when they use Google Search. Find out more at g.co/lof/ssa



For the SMBs that can take advantage of it, this ecommerce explosion represents a significant opportunity. As a study by McKinsey points out, it not only allows SMBs to transcend the limits of brick and mortar stores but also to reach new markets more efficiently.


As exciting as it’s been to witness the growth in African ecommerce over the past couple of years, it’s even more exciting to think about how much more room for growth there still is.


We’re excited to be on this journey, and to be providing support to business owners on the continent.



By Mojolaoluwa Aderemi-Makinde, Regional Head Brand and Reputation, Africa - Google




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Google Research enhances its AI growth in Africa



When we launched our first African AI research centre in Ghana in 2018, we did so with the aim of fostering the continent’s growing capabilities in the field, to deliver innovative solutions that will benefit both Africa and the world, working with local universities and research centres, as well as working with policymakers on the potential uses of AI in Africa.



Since its launch, the team at the Accra-based Research Centre has engaged in significant AI work, including mapping Africa’s built environment using satellite imagery and machine learning, which allowed to quadruple the number of African buildings on Google Maps, bringing the number up past 250-million. The team also released the Open Buildings Dataset last July - which being used by various organisations such as the UN. In other works, the team uses machine learning and Google's unique capabilities to advance support of Sub-Saharan African languages, reduce the harms of locusts, adapt our existing flood forecasting systems to respond to the special challenges of the continent, and more.



At our Google for Africa event last October, our CEO, Sundar Pichai, announced a plan to invest $1 billion over the next five years to support Africa's digital transformation. As a continuation of that commitment, last month we announced a new product development center in Africa, to be located in Nairobi. The product development center will help to create products and services for people in Africa and the world.


We are also working on applying Google Translate to more languages in Africa. Earlier this month, Google announced it is adding 24 new languages to Google Translate, 10 of which are African languages. This will help more people on the continent access more of the internet and use it to its full potential.



Expanding our commitment
Last week, we made several exciting announcements aimed at expanding our commitments. We inaugurated our new office in Ghana, which will allow us to grow our in-country team. We are accelerating our growth in Accra and are expanding our Research AI residency program, which is designed to jump start research careers. We also underlined our commitment to growing our presence in the ecosystem through making our site a community hub for in-person engagements with the community. Last week we hosted our first community workshop in the field of NLP and African languages and a panel with Ghanaian entrepreneurs working on sustainable development goals.



In addition to the new office, we’ve also made several investments aimed at growing research talent in Africa. We announced Generation Google Scholarships in 2022 for female computer science students and students in related technical fields at universities in Africa and last week we hosted young students as part of our global Mind the Gap program of encouraging students towards science and technology.


Back in 2018, I visited Rwanda for the launch of the African Master’s in Machine Intelligence (AMMI) program at the African Institute for Maths and Sciences (AIMS), with support from Google as one of the founding partners. AMMI is a one-year program which has successfully been run in Rwanda, Senegal and Ghana, and with graduates taking on continued graduate studies or taking positions in the industry, including at our Research Center in Accra. We are happy to continue our funding support.



Last week we announced signing the first Master Sponsored Research Agreements in Africa, with Kwame Nkrumah University in Ghana (KNUST) and the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Ghana (AIMS) to enable research and leadership sponsored programs developing young tech-talent in Africa. I also got to visit the AIMS Ghana Campus as well as University of Ghana, meeting faculty and students, where once again I was reminded of the great talent and potential that exists in Africa.



In the decade-plus that Google has had a presence in Africa, we’ve witnessed first-hand the incredible potential for what people can do with the internet and technology. AI is undoubtedly the next frontier of that relationship and we’re excited to play an ongoing role in its African growth journey.




Posted by Yossi Matias, Vice President, Engineering & Research






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Step into the Meroë pyramids with Google

When you think of pyramids does your mind wander to the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt or the Mayan Temples of Guatemala? Great civilizations built each of these pyramids and inscribed their stories onto the walls of them, offering glimpses into their daily life.


The Pyramids of Meroë in Sudan, while lesser known, are no different. Today, you can explore these stunning pyramids, which are a UNESCO World Heritage site, on Google Arts & Culture.


Over 200 pyramids were constructed in Meroë, the third and final capital of the Kushite Kingdom, an ancient African civilization that ruled the lands of Nubia for over 3000 years. Now you can take a virtual walk through the Pyramids of Meroë and explore the inscriptions using Street View’s panoramic imagery. You can also learn more about the Kushite Kingdom, their royalty and the architecture behind the pyramids in an immersive web experience that’s available in a range of languages including Arabic, English, French, German and Spanish.
 

If you want to get even more up close and personal, you can visualize the pyramids using augmented reality — no matter where you are. You can also listen to acclaimed Sudanese-American poet Emi Mahmood share evocative rhymes that are a beautiful ode to her homeland and to this project that shares Sudan’s rich heritage with others.


We’ve also partnered with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (UNESCO) to bring you more information about Meroë, Gebel Barkal and Napatan region and Sudan’s Sanganeb Marine National Park.

Are you ready to explore? Visit g.co/meroe.



Posted by Mariam Khaled Dabboussi, Product Marketing Manager, Google



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Announcing the Black Founders Fund 2022

En Français

Access to capital continues to pose a challenge for businesses in Africa, especially for women. For Evelyn Kaingu, CEO of Lupiya, this challenge represented an opportunity to leverage technology to support an underserved market. Lupiya is the first fully online micro-lending business in Zambia, offering online personal and business loans to marginalized communities with a focus on enabling access for women. Lupiya is an alumnus of the inaugural Google for Startups Black Founders Fund in Africa launched in 2021 and like fellow startups on the continent, is contributing to economic growth using digital technologies.


In 2021, African tech startups collectively raised $4.3 billion - a 2.5x increase from 2020 funding. This growth, however encouraging, does not discount the existence of a significant funding gap for locally-founded African startups as 82% of them report difficulties in accessing funding.


Following Google’s commitment to building a more equitable future, Google for startups launched the inaugural Black Founders Fund in Africa program in 2021 - supporting 50 black-led businesses across the continent. Since then those startups have gone on to raise $73M+ in follow-on funding, hired 518 staff members and grown their revenues.


Today we’re pleased to announce that we will be extending our support in Africa, with a second $4 million Black Founders Fund which will provide 60 startups in Africa with up to $100,000 in equity-free cash awards, paired with up to $200,000 per startup in Google Cloud credits as well as mentorship, technical and scaling support from the best of Google .


This announcement follows the success of inaugural Black Founders Funds in the US, Brazil, Europe and Africa. Over the years, Google for Startups through the Google for Startups Accelerator and Partner programs, has supported over 1,500 startups in Africa, and their success speaks for itself as today 20% of all VC funding deployed on the continent is going to the Google for Startups Africa alumni community.


We invite you to visit the program page at goo.gle/BFFAfrica to read more about the program, eligibility criteria and how to apply. Applications are open from today and close May 31st


Folarin Aiyegbusi, Head of Startup Ecosystem, Sub Saharan Africa





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Edition 2022 du programme Black Founders Fund


L’accès au capital reste un problème majeur pour les entreprises en Afrique, en particulier pour les femmes. Evelyn Kaingu, CEO de Lupiya, y a vu une opportunité de tirer parti de la technologie pour venir en aide à un secteur délaissé. Lupiya est la première entreprise de microcrédit entièrement en ligne en Zambie. Elle propose des prêts personnels et commerciaux aux communautés marginalisées, notamment pour les femmes. Lupiya a été créée dans le sillage de Google for Startups Black Africa, lancé en 2021, et comme d’autres start-up du continent, cette société, grâce aux technologies numériques, contribue à la croissance économique de l’Afrique.


En 2021, les startups technologiques africaines ont collectivement levé 4,3 milliards de dollars, soit deux fois et demie plus qu’en 2020. Cette croissance, bien qu’encourageante, ne compense en rien le manque de financement des startups africaines locales, car 82 % d’entre elles font état de difficultés d’accès au capital.


Conformément à l’engagement de Google d’œuvrer pour un avenir plus équitable, Google for startups a lancé le programme Black Founders Fund in Africa en 2021, qui a permis d’accompagner 50 entreprises en Afrique, toutes dirigées par des africains. Depuis, ces entreprises ont levé plus de 73 millions de dollars de financement complémentaire, recruté 518 personnes et développé leur chiffre d’affaires.


Aujourd’hui, nous avons le plaisir d’annoncer que nous allons étendre notre soutien à l’Afrique, avec un deuxième programme Black Founders Fund de 4 millions de dollars, qui permettra à 60 startups africaines de recevoir jusqu’à 100 000 dollars en espèces, sans prise de participation au capital, et jusqu’à 200 000 dollars par startup de crédits Google Cloud . Ces entreprises bénéficieront également d’un mentorat, d’une assistance technique et d’un accompagnement au développement de la part des meilleurs spécialistes de Google .



Cette annonce fait suite au succès des premiers programmes Black Founders Funds lancés aux États-Unis, au Brésil, en Europe et en Afrique. Au fil des ans, Google for Startups, grâce à ses programmes Google for Startups Accelerator et Google Partner, a apporté son soutien à plus de 1 500 startups en Afrique. Pour preuve de leur succès : aujourd’hui, 20 % des fonds de capital-risque déployés sur le continent bénéficient à la communauté des anciens de Google for Startups Africa.


Nous vous invitons à consulter la page du programme sur goo.gle/BFFAfrica pour en savoir plus sur le programme, les critères d’admissibilité et les modalités d’inscription. Les dossiers de candidature peuvent être déposés dès aujourd’hui et jusqu’au 31 mai.



Posté par Folarin Aiyegbusi, Responsable de l’écosystème start-up, Afrique sub-saharienne

A Digital Growth Program for Publishers in South Africa


As more people are going online for their news, publishers are looking at new ways to create sustainable online business models. As part of our ongoing commitment to supporting the news ecosystem, we've been meeting with publishers across South Africa to hear about what works and what more we can do to support their growth. Earlier this year, Google announced in a blog postthat the Digital Immersion Program would soon be launched in South Africa and that we're committed to fostering growth and innovation within the local news ecosystem.


I had the opportunity to visit the Digital Immersion Program: South Africa Edition, hosted by the Google News Initiative and FT Strategies last week. The Digital Immersion programme is a five day interactive workshop for key decision makers, designed to accelerate a publisher’s journey toward digital reader revenue. The programme is designed for publishers at the beginning of their digital reader revenue journey and is aimed at organisations looking for rapid and actionable solutions to help in their transition to digital reader revenue.



Here are some of my takeaways from the lively discussions and workshop:
  1. There are difficulties around shifting from print to digital both from the publisher and reader perspective. Multiple contributing factors need to be considered as part of this shift, including access to wifi, data, and a bigger conversation around how people pay for digital news.
  2. There tend to be silos between the editorial and commercial teams, sometimes resulting in a disconnect on how publishers make the shift to digital. Digital transformation should be a concerted effort, and allocated sufficient resources, allowing the entire team the agility to experiment and grow together.
  3. Digital transformation should be collaborative and data driven. In order to drive digital transformation, it is important for publishers to use data to collect, refine and use it to better serve the needs of their audiences.


Participants in the program ranged from local and community news to national and online-only publishers: Caxton Digital, 24.com, Arena Holdings, Sunday World, Mail & Guardian, Sabido, Primedia Broadcasting, among others. I enjoyed hearing from Styli Charalambous Co-founder & CEO, Daily Maverick, along with expert speakers from FT Strategies and the Google News Initiative.

The Digital Immersion Program for South Africa is one way that the Google News Initiative is providing training and resources to help accelerate publisher’s digital transformation and ultimate growth. I look forward to continuing similar engagements in the future and to further discussions with publishers, journalists and policymakers on how we can enable innovation and growth across the news ecosystem.
 
 

Editors’ note: hear more from Abongile at the Digital Immersion Program in CapeTown, 

in this short video.








Posted by Abongile Mashele, Senior Manager, Government Affairs and Public Policy, Southern Africa, Google.



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Announcing Google Africa Developer Scholarship, Class 5

En Français

Opportunities for software developers in Africa are at an all time high, according to the 2021 Africa Developer Report by Google and Accenture, opportunities for software developers in Africa are at an all time high, driven primarily by the booming startup ecosystem and the global demand for remote work. Local businesses are also contributing to this demand as they seek to hire more developers to help them build a better online presence.


The report also looked at ways that technology companies can accelerate access to these opportunities through education and training programs that improve on job readiness. At Google we have been supporting developers in Africa through community and training programs for over 10 years. Today, there are more than 180 active developer communities in 30 countries across Africa. These local developer communities provide developers with the opportunity to connect, learn and grow together. The research report showed that nearly 1 in every 2 developers in Africa has been through a Google developer training or community program.





Mampho and Christopher are two software developers based in Johannesburg and Lagos respectively who have graduated from the Google Africa Developer Scholarship program. They both heard about the opportunity online and decided to apply for the Google Cloud learning track. After completing the training, they went a step further and took the Associate Cloud Engineer certification. This has enabled them to be more productive at work, and opened up a world of new opportunities for them. To quote Mampho, “The GADS program empowered me, and showed me that I could be a world class developer”


Today, we are announcing an additional 30,000 Android and Google Cloud ​​training opportunities for aspiring and professional developers in Africa. We are pleased to be partnering with Andela and Pluralsight on this program for the 5th year in a row, continuing our commitment to Africa’s developer ecosystem. Developers selected for the program will gain access to carefully curated training content and hands-on learning experiences. They will also access a pan-African network of peer learning groups and community mentors who will guide them on the learning journey.


Follow this link to apply for the scholarship.


We also invite you to join us at this year’s virtual Google IO, where we shall be sharing more about Africa’s booming developer ecosystem.

 

Posted by John Kimani, Program Manager, Africa Developer Training





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La cinquième édition du programme de bourse Google Africa Developer Scholarship (GADS) arrive !


Le marché de l’emploi en Afrique n’a jamais été autant en demande de développeurs, d’après le rapport sur les écosystèmes des développeurs en Afrique que Google a publié en 2021 en collaboration avec Accenture. Cette évolution s’explique principalement par l’essor spectaculaire des start-ups et du télétravail dans le monde. Les entreprises locales, qui recherchent des développeurs pour améliorer leur présence en ligne, contribuent aussi à cette hausse de la demande.


Depuis plus de 10 ans, Google apporte son soutien aux développeurs en Afrique par le biais de programmes de formation et de programmes communautaires. Aujourd’hui, l’Afrique compte plus de 180 communautés de développeurs actives dans 30 pays, qui offrent aux développeurs la possibilité d’échanger, d’apprendre et d’avancer ensemble. Le rapport de recherche révèle que près d’un développeur sur deux en Afrique a suivi une formation de développeur ou un programme communautaire Google.


Mampho et Christopher, deux développeurs basés respectivement à Johannesburg et à Lagos, ont obtenu leur diplôme via le programme de bourse Google Africa Developer Scholarship (GADS) destiné aux développeurs africains. Tous deux avaient entendu parler de cette opportunité offerte en ligne et décidé de postuler pour le cursus Google Cloud. Une fois cette formation terminée, ils ont passé l’examen de certification Associate Cloud Engineer. Cela leur a permis d’être plus productifs au travail et leur a ouvert tout un monde de nouvelles opportunités. « Le programme GADS m’a vraiment donné les moyens de réussir et a fait la preuve que je pouvais être un développeur de classe mondiale » explique Mampho.


Aujourd’hui, Google annonce 30 000 bourses supplémentaires de formation Android et Google Cloud, destinées à former des développeurs africains, qu’ils soient débutants ou professionnels. Nous sommes heureux de nous associer à Andela et Pluralsight sur ce programme, pour la cinquième année consécutive, et de poursuivre ainsi notre engagement envers les développeurs en Afrique. La formation donne accès à un contenu soigneusement sélectionné et à des sessions d'apprentissage pratiques. Elle donne aussi accès à un réseau panafricain de groupes d’apprentissage de pairs, et de mentors pour les guider dans leur parcours de formation.


Suivez ce lien pour postuler à la bourse d'études. Les inscriptions seront clôturées le 31 mai 2022


Rejoignez-nous cette année à la conférence virtuelle Google Input/Output, notre conférence annuelle pour les développeurs, où nous en apprendrons davantage sur l’écosystème florissant des développeurs en Afrique.



Posté par John Kimani, Directeur de programme, Formation des développeurs en Afrique

Equiano’s next stop is in Nigeria

Last month, we announced that the Equiano undersea cable successfully landed in Togo. This was the first in a series of landings on the continent for the subsea cable, which will run from Portugal along Africa's west coast to South Africa. Today, we're thrilled to announce our second Africa landing in Lagos, Nigeria. While many subsea cables are named after historical luminaries, the Equiano cable has special resonance for Nigeria. It’s named after Olaudah Equiano, a Nigerian-born writer and abolitionist, so its landing in Lagos, Nigeria today is like a homecoming.




Nigeria is sub-Saharan Africa’s largest economy. Still, the share of people using the internet stood at approximately 35% as of 2020 – double what it was in 2012. Across much of the country, people lack affordable, reliable & quality access, which limits their ability to benefit from, and contribute to, the digital economy.



Since 2017, the Nigerian government has been actively working on its digital transformation programs as part of plans to grow its domestic sectors. These initiatives have proven pivotal to the success of many industries in the country, especially the startup space. In the last five years, startups in Nigeria have produced five unicorns (startups valued at over a billion dollars). Businesses are also benefiting significantly from the usage of internet platforms, with total e-commerce annual expenditure predicted to climb to $75 billion by 2025, up from its current projection of US $12 billion.





Though a great deal of progress has been made, studies suggest that faster internet connections, better user experiences, and reduced internet costs will help accelerate these benefits.



Landing this cable comes as part of critical stages leading up to its deployment later this year, and it is expected to deliver up to 20 times more capacity than the region's prior cables. We've worked with established partners and in-country experts to ensure that Equiano has the greatest potential effect in Nigeria and throughout Africa.



A recent economic impact assessment conducted by Africa Practice and Genesis Analytics states that Equiano's arrival in Nigeria is expected to result in faster internet speeds and significantly improve people's experiences while online. Internet speeds in Nigeria are expected to grow almost sixfold by 2025, and retail internet prices are forecasted to decline by 21% over the same period. The same study found that by 2025, real GDP in Nigeria is forecast to be USD 10.1 billion higher than it otherwise would have been without Equiano and that the cable would indirectly generate roughly 1.6 million new jobs between 2022 and 2025.




We are partnering with multiple key telecom players, including our landing party, the West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC), where Equiano lands to ensure that the cable can reach more businesses and end users across Nigeria and the African continent more broadly




With Equiano, we look forward to being an even more integral part of the digital transformation journey in Nigeria.



Posted by Juliet Ehimuan, Director, West Africa


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We’re hiring for our first product development center in Africa

En Français

Are you an aspiring Engineering Manager, Product Manager, Software Engineer, Senior UX Designer or UX Researcher? Do you want to help us to create transformative products and services for people in Africa and around the world? Then apply for one of the numerous open roles at our new product development center in Nairobi. To help realise Google’s mission, we will be hiring visionary engineers, product managers, UX designers and researchers to lay the foundation for significant growth in the coming years.

 



We’re looking for talented, creative, and collaborative people who can help solve difficult and important technical challenges, such as improving the smartphone experience for people in Africa, or building products that will help everyone to thrive together.


Alongside great technical knowledge and a passion for solving hard problems together with others, you’ll need to understand how people across the continent use their phones every day and the challenges they face. How might searching for information and accessing entertainment be different in a context where internet connectivity can be challenging and devices and data plans can be expensive? Perhaps you have great ideas for how we can serve relevant and useful information to users just when they need it most? Or do you have a vision for how to reimagine the entire online experience, so it’s better, easier and more individually useful, particularly for first-time smartphone users? Then we want to hear from you.


Supporting Africa’s digital transformation will take teamwork – by 2030, Africa will have 800 million internet users and one-third of the world’s under-35 population. At our Google for Africa event last October, our CEO, Sundar Pichai, announced a plan to invest $1billion over the next five years in projects that will provide fast, reliable, affordable internet across the continent; build helpful, local products; and support the entrepreneurs and small businesses that underpin Africa’s economies. We also opened a Google AI research centre in Accra, Ghana to help drive useful innovations. The new product development centre is a continuation of that commitment.

 


Find out more about the opportunities
If you have the talent, experience and appetite to join our team, and want to work on significant and impactful projects with us in Africa, for Africa and the world, you can view all our open opportunities on our site. We’re excited to see what we can build together.



Posted by Suzanne Frey, VP, Products & Nitin Gajria, MD, Google in Africa






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Nous recrutons pour notre premier centre de développement de produits en Afrique

Vous aspirez à devenir responsable ingénierie, chef de produit, ingénieur logiciel, concepteur UX confirmé ou chercheur UX ? Vous voulez nous aider à créer des produits et services de transformation numérique pour les populations d'Afrique et du monde entier ? Alors postulez pour l'un des nombreux postes ouverts dans notre nouveau centre de développement de produits à Nairobi. Pour nous aider à réaliser la mission que Google s'est donnée, nous allons recruter des ingénieurs, des chefs de produit, des concepteurs UX et des chercheurs visionnaires afin de créer les conditions d'une forte croissance pour les années à venir.




Nous recherchons des personnes talentueuses, créatives et collaboratives, capables de trouver des solutions à des défis techniques difficiles et importants, par exemple pour améliorer l’expérience utilisateur sur les smartphones des personnes en Afrique, ou pour créer des produits qui vont favoriser la collaboration et permettre à chacun de progresser ensemble.


Outre d’excellentes connaissances techniques et une passion pour la résolution de problèmes difficiles en collaboration avec d’autres personnes, vous devrez comprendre comment les habitants de ce continent utilisent leurs téléphones au quotidien et les défis auxquels ils sont confrontés. Avez-vous pensé à une autre façon de rechercher des informations et d'accéder au divertissement quand la connectivité à l'Internet est difficile et les appareils et les forfaits de données sont coûteux ? Vous avez peut-être plein d'idées pour nous aider à diffuser des informations pertinentes et utiles aux utilisateurs quand ils en ont le plus besoin... Ou bien avez-vous en tête une façon de réimaginer l'ensemble de l'expérience en ligne, pour la rendre meilleure, plus facile et plus utile à chacun, en particulier pour les personnes qui utilisent un smartphone pour la première fois ? Si oui, nous avons envie d'entendre ce que vous avez à nous dire.


Soutenir la transformation numérique de l'Afrique nécessitera un travail d'équipe. D'ici à 2030, l'Afrique comptera 800 millions d'internautes et un tiers de la population mondiale des moins de 35 ans. Lors de notre événement Google pour l'Afrique en octobre dernier, notre PDG, Sundar Pichai, a annoncé un plan d'investissement d'un milliard de dollars au cours des cinq prochaines années pour financer des projets visant à fournir un accès Internet rapide, fiable et abordable sur tout le continent, à créer des produits locaux utiles et à accompagner les entrepreneurs et les petites entreprises qui soutiennent les économies africaines. Nous avons également ouvert un centre de recherche sur l'IA Google à Accra, au Ghana, pour favoriser des innovations utiles. Le nouveau centre de développement de produits s'inscrit dans la continuité de cet engagement.


En savoir plus sur les opportunités
Si vous avez le talent, l’expérience et l’envie de rejoindre notre équipe, et si vous souhaitez travailler sur des projets importants et marquants avec nous en Afrique, pour l’Afrique et pour le reste du monde, vous pouvez consulter toutes nos offres d’emploi sur notre site. Nous sommes impatients de voir ce que nous pouvons construire ensemble.




Auteurs : Suzanne Frey, VP, Produits & Nitin Gajria, MD, Google en Afrique