170 Kenyans to lose jobs as Andela lays off developers

By , K24 Digital
On Tue, 17 Sep, 2019 17:46 | < 1 min read
Andela
Andela is a software developer training and outsourcing firm. PHOTO | COURTESY

One hundred and seventy software developers in Kenya are set to lose their jobs as Andela, a software developer training and outsourcing firm, announces job cuts in Africa.

On Tuesday, Andela said it will let go of approximately 250 workers in Nigeria and Uganda, with an additional 170 potentially affected in Kenya.

The job cuts target junior engineers who the firm say will not be able to “find meaningful work over the next year.”

Andela earns revenue by training local entry-level developers to be globally competitive, placing them on four-year contracts and then outsourcing their skills to customers, most of them in the United States.

“Today, we are announcing that we are closing the D0 program in Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda. Moving forward, we will be focusing D0 training efforts on our pan-African hub in Rwanda,” said the firm.

As part of this shift, we have also had to make an extremely difficult decision as it relates to a number of talented junior engineers.

In addition, we will be letting go of approximately 250 Andelans in Nigeria and Uganda, with an additional 170 potentially impacted in Kenya, who we don’t believe

The firm said it was laying off the junior engineers as it seeks to tweak its business model despite nearly doubling its annual revenue.

“It’s also become clear, however, that the majority of the demand is for more experienced talent. As a result of that, we began sourcing and assessing mid-level and senior engineers, and they now represent more than 25% of our talent base,” Andela said on Tuesday.

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