US tech firm Andela has laid off 250 junior engineers and staff from its Nigeria and Uganda hubs — and is looking up laying off a further up to 170 junior engineers and staff in Kenya, the tech firm said in a statement yesterday.
Andela — which launched operations in Nigeria in 2014 — identifies, develops and outsources talented African software developers.
The company said the move comes as it looks to restructure the staff complement to more closely align this with global demand. The layoffs, it added, will not affect its customers’ operations.
Andela says it now plans to hire 700 experienced engineers by the end of 2020
Andela co-founder and CEO Jeremy Johnson explained that it has become clear that the majority of demand is for “more experienced talent” and that to keep up with it, the company needs to grow its senior talent base even faster.
“This shift in demand also means that we now have more junior talent than we are able to place,” added Johnson.
The company said it now plans to hire 700 experienced engineers by the end of next year.
In addition, the company is partnering with CcHub in Nigeria, iHub in Kenya and Innovation Village in Uganda to help connect those developers it’s laid off with opportunities in their local communities.
Andela said it has, together with the three hubs, identified over 60 companies who are looking to hire top quality junior engineering talent.
These hubs will also offer impacted engineers the opportunity to use their co-working spaces free of charge for the next three months.
Continued support for Andela Learning Community
Andela said it will continue to invest in the Andela Learning Community which it says has introduced over 30 000 learners from across Africa to software engineering.
The company over the next three years it expects over 100 000 engineers from across Africa to take advantage of programmes within the community.
Earlier this year Andela secured a $100-million Series-D funding round led by London-based private equity firm Generation Investment Management.
At the time the company said it would use the funding to accelerate the development of its tech platform to identify, develop and match talent at scale, as well as expand its presence across Africa so as to meet global demand for talent (see this story).
Since launching in 2014, the company has raised a total of $181-million.
Last year Andela partnered with the Rwandan government to launch a pan-African tech hub Kigali (see this story). It is not yet clear if the restructuring and lay-offs will affect the hub.
Ventureburn sought comment from Andela on this but had not received a response at the time of publication.
Featured image: Andela via Facebook
