Pan-African tech firm, Andela has officially launched its operations in Egypt. The company announced that this launch in Egypt would be its first fully remote centre despite having tech campuses in other African countries like Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda.
Jeremy Johnson, co-founder and CEO of Andela, during a speech at the launch, said that the company “ builds world-class engineering teams, and we are excited to be enhancing our talent pool as we expand into Egypt.”
The CEO went on to say that Andela is eager to help raise the profile of Egypt’s tech ecosystem on the global stage.
Following the launch of this remote centre, the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), an executive IT arm created by the Egyptian government signed an MoU with Andela.
The agreement seeks to select and invest in at least 200 top software engineers in the North African nation. These selected engineers will get the chance to work with some of the leading technology companies across the world without having to leave Egypt.
CEO of ITIDA, Engineer Hala El Gohary, said that “we are pleased to be working closely with Andela.” He reassured the tech company that Egypt’s geographic proximity to international markets perfectly fits the engineering-as-a-service business and would further boost the company’s growth.
ITIDA’s ambition is to champion a world-class IT infrastructure contributing to Egypt’s economic growth. It, therefore, seeks partnerships with foreign investors and multinational companies willing to invest in the local ICT.
Subsequently, The MoU agreement is in line with Egypt’s strategy to increase the annual export of ICT services which as of 2018 was valued at $3.67 billion. This partnership will catapult the Egyptian ICT sector to the global stage and create more job opportunities for Egyptian populace.
“We would like to thank the Minister of Communications and Information Technology and ITIDA for collaborating with us during our move into our first MENA region market,” said Rama El Safty, Andela’s Country Director in Egypt.
This expansion comes as Andela looks to strengthen its team of over 1,200 software engineers located across other countries in Africa. These engineers help power the technology teams of more than 200 tech companies around the world including Viacom, BBC, Github, and Coursera.
Andela Egypt is currently accepting applications for a number of software engineering positions that will bolster the ICT sector in the North African country.
By Treasure Nnabugwu
