IBM IS ramping up its digital-skills training programme to accommodate up to 25 million Africans in the next five years, looking towards building a future workforce on the continent. The US tech giant plans to make an initial investment of R945 million to roll out the training initiative in South Africa.
The programme will be started at IBM’s offices in Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco and Egypt, enabling an expansion across the rest of the continent.
“Africa will have the largest workforce by 2040 and IBM wants to lay the foundation blocks to build a digital workforce,’’ said Juan Pablo Napoli, the head of IBM Skills Academy.
“We will be providing a free cloud-based learning platform able to train people from basic computer skills to high-end app development.”
The move might help bring and keep digital jobs in Africa instead of losing them to India, said Hamilton Ratshefola, IBM’s country manager for South Africa. IBM has partnered with the UN in extending the initiative throughout Africa.