Google on Tuesday announced its first Product Development Centre in Africa, to be located in Nairobi, Kenya.
The new centre will help to create transformative products and services for people in Africa and around the world and will be hiring visionary engineers, product managers, UX designers and researchers to lay the foundation for significant growth in the coming years.
The centre is looking for talented, creative people who can help solve difficult and important technical challenges, such as improving the smartphone experience for people in Africa, or building a more reliable internet infrastructure.
Google’s VP for Products, Suzanne Frey, who made the announcement during a round table with journalists from Sub-Saharan Africa, said “Google’s mission in Africa is to make the Internet helpful to Africans and partner with African governments, policymakers, educators, entrepreneurs and businesses to shape the next wave of innovation in Africa. Today I am excited to welcome all Africans passionate about improving the digital experience of African users by building better products to apply for the open roles at our first product development centre in Africa.”
Also speaking during the announcement, the Managing Director, Google Africa, Nitin Gajria added that ‘’there are 300M internet users in Africa who are young, mobile-first and have similar patterns to mobile youth globally. By 2030, Africa will have 800M internet users and a third of the world’s under-35 population. The potential for Africa to become a leading digital economy is right on the horizon and Google is committed to accelerating Africa’s digital transformation through human capital and enabling “African-led solutions to African and global problems” through better products.”
Last October at a Google for Africa event, the CEO, Sundar Pichai, announced a plan to invest $1billion over the next 5 years to support Africa’s digital transformation.
This investment focuses on enabling fast, affordable internet access for more Africans, building helpful products, supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses and helping nonprofits to improve lives across Africa. In 2018 Google also opened an AI research centre in Accra, Ghana to help drive useful innovations.
The new product development centre is a continuation of that commitment and will be working on building for Africa and the world.
All the roles announced today about building for Africa and the world can be viewed at careers.google.com site.