Microsoft, a multinational technology company based in the United States, is considering eliminating one of its Nigerian businesses, the African Development Centre in Lagos. Microsoft’s ADC is in Ikoyi, a posh neighbourhood in Lagos that serves as Nigeria’s business hub and the continent’s largest economy.
It was learned that they informed its employees on Monday about the closure of its African Development Centre in Lagos without providing a reason. According to an insider, the impacted staff will continue to be paid their salaries and covered by health insurance until June.
While the actual reasons behind the decision are unclear, sources say that Nigeria’s deteriorating economic conditions may have played a factor in making the decision. The closure appears to impact only the ADC’s West Africa operations in Nigeria, not its East Africa branch in Nairobi, Kenya.
An anonymous source at Lagos office reported this case, they neither acknowledged nor denied the shutdown. Microsoft announced its $100 million African Development Centres project in 2019, with locations in Lagos and Nairobi.
When Nigeria’s Microsoft ADC opened in 2022, it hired more than 120 engineers, bringing the total number of employees to more than 200. In 2019, the firm expected to hire 100 full-time engineers by the end of the year and 500 by the end of 2023. It is betting on African innovation in industries such as fintech, agritech, and off-grid energy and expects to capitalise on it.
Microsoft
“The ADC will be unlike any other current investment on the continent. “It will enable us to better listen to our customers, develop locally, and scale for global impact,” it executive vice president Philip Spencer said in Nairobi.
Source: vanguardngr.com
