This pressing issue took center stage at the recent Hyperscalers Convergence Africa conference, hosted by Africa Hyperscalers Media.

A panel discussion, themed “The Talent Gap – Developing Sustainable Digital Talent for Africa,” featured industry veterans such as Olusola Teniola, Wale Owoeye, Adewale Adeyemi, Dr. Hakeem Onasanya, and Olusegun Maleghemi, who shared their insights on the challenges facing the sector.

Olusola Teniola, director of Strategic Business Initiatives at ipNX, asserted that formal curricula for critical topics such as digital infrastructure and data centers are lacking.

He also stressed that traditional subjects continue to dominate African academic programs, which leaves new graduates unprepared for industry demands.

Dr. Hakeem Onasanya, head of Startups at Lagos Innovates, Lagos State Employment Trust Fund called on the government to take responsibility for educational reform, noting that many banks are establishing their own training programs, raising concerns about the efficacy of traditional university education.

Dr. Onasanya emphasized the widening disconnect between academia and industry, noting that this issue has become increasingly complex over the years.

He advocated for integrating industry insights into academia, emphasizing that academic institutions can be overly protective and often prioritize formal qualifications like PhDs over practical experience.

Dr. Onasanya pointed out that this focus does not necessarily lead to better teaching outcomes. To address this, he urged universities to invite industry experts as adjunct lecturers, enabling students to better understand how theoretical concepts apply in real-world contexts.

This approach helps learners grasp textbook material while also acquiring the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in their future careers.

Ultimately, the goal is to provide students with a well-rounded education that effectively prepares them for the demands of the industry. He urged for proactive solutions, suggesting that partnerships between universities and the private sector could provide students with real industry experiences.

Adewale Adeyemi, Head of Business Development at Tek Experts, underscored the urgent need to update educational curricula to reflect rapid technological advancements.

Wale Owoeye, CEO of Cedarview Communications, illustrated the gaps between academia and industry by likening them to two cars traveling at the same speed; a gap forms when one accelerates or decelerates.

Reflecting on his experience in San Francisco, Owoeye recounted sharing a hostel with a young Chinese professional who had learned machine learning during his college years, contrasting that with the current situation for African professionals.

He expressed concern about the widening gap between them and their global counterparts, emphasizing the need to equip the current generation to avoid the pitfalls faced by their predecessors.

The conference shed light on the critical need for educational reforms that align closely with industry demands, ensuring the next generation is adequately prepared for the evolving tech landscape in Africa.

Each entity contributes its specialized expertise—Cytek Security in cutting-edge cybersecurity readiness, Tek Experts in unparalleled enterprise technical managed services, and Elev8 Tek in innovative technical skilling—creating a comprehensive portfolio under TeKnowledge that offers end-to-end digital transformation services.

This strategic amalgamation heralds the beginning of a new era in tech services, where TeKnowledge stands as the transformative catalyst for digital evolution, providing governments and enterprises worldwide with unparalleled cybersecurity services, advanced technical skilling, and enterprise technical managed services at scale.

Backed by over a decade of pioneering achievements in the tech services industry and a distinguished roster of government and enterprise customers worldwide, TeKnowledge is uniquely equipped to navigate the complexities of digital modernization.

By integrating these powerhouse brands, TeKnowledge tackles the critical challenges of bridging the tech talent gap and expediting digital imperatives, providing a holistic suite of services tailored to bolster cybersecurity defenses, cultivate essential technical skills, and deliver expert technical managed services to streamline and accelerate digital strategies.

Under the leadership of Aileen Allkins, president and CEO, TeKnowledge is pioneering new frontiers in digital services. Drawing upon her notable success at various tech giants including Microsoft and HP, Aileen has swiftly positioned TeKnowledge as a leader in secure and scalable technology solutions.

In her first strategic initiative, Aileen has built an exceptional leadership team, merging seasoned executives from Tek Experts, Elev8, and Cytek, and enriched by strategic new appointments.

This includes bringing on board Jyllene Miller as Chief Revenue and Growth Officer, tapping into her extensive experience in growth strategies and market development garnered at numerous Fortune 500 companies to propel TeKnowledge’s global expansion.

The team is further bolstered by Eric Schifflers as Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), whose vast experience across global organizations like NATO, Ria Money Transfer, and Roche, amplifies TeKnowledge’s cybersecurity defenses and strategic security initiatives.

The executive leadership team at TeKnowledge, a dynamic group of seasoned leaders, embodies a wealth of diverse expertise, driving the company’s strategic vision across public and private sectors.

Their collective skills in global operations, cybersecurity, digital transformation, and customer experience, honed over decades, are crucial in navigating the digital landscape’s complexities.

This team’s unified approach is setting new industry standards, establishing TeKnowledge as a leader in digital services and a catalyst for transformative growth and resilience in the digital era.

“A unified TeKnowledge signifies a major shift in digital transformation services,” states Aileen Allkins, President and CEO. “Bringing together the expertise of Cytek Security, Tek Experts, and Elev8 under the TeKnowledge umbrella, creates a synergy that benefits our customers as we enhance our delivery, achieving faster, more impactful outcomes. This positions us to effectively tackle the tech talent gap and pace of digital innovation. Offering a comprehensive suite of elite cybersecurity services, top-tier digital skilling, and scalable technical managed services, TeKnowledge is committed to guiding governments and enterprises worldwide through the complexities of digital transformation. Our approach integrates these services seamlessly, maximizing efficiency, simplifying processes, and accelerating the achievement of strategic imperatives with unparalleled precision and efficacy.”

How TeKnowledge is Bridging Global Divides with Local Impact:

• Optimized Managed Technical Services: TeKnowledge (f.k.a. Tek Experts) stands out with its superior operational excellence and agile solutions, supported by a global network of professionals, including a significant presence in emerging markets. The enterprise managed services are distinguished by their ability to seamlessly integrate and scale, ensuring organizations achieve operational superiority and strategic success in the digital landscape.

• Precision Technical Skilling: Directly addressing the global talent gap, TeKnowledge’s (f.k.a. Elev8) custom training programs are strategically designed to equip both the current and future generations with the skills needed to navigate and excel in the ever-evolving tech landscape, preparing them for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

• Dynamic Cybersecurity Services: With an all-encompassing suite of advisory and Managed Security Services (MSS) offerings, TeKnowledge (f.k.a. Cytek Security) equips customers with dynamic defenses against the evolving cyber landscape.

The launch of TeKnowledge heralds an important evolution in the global digital landscape, emphasizing a future where digital security and operational excellence transform from aspirations into baseline expectations worldwide.

At the core of this transformation is the robust talent—engineers supporting engineers, and developers supporting developers—to ensure unparalleled expertise and collaboration in tackling the digital challenges ahead.

This state-of-the-art facility, powered by Microsoft’s AI-enabled Sentinel platform, aims to deliver a comprehensive suite of cutting-edge solutions, offering round-the-clock protection for governments and businesses across the region.

“The establishment of our SOC represents a major milestone, reinforcing our commitment to bolstering the Nigerian and West African technology sectors,” stated Olugbolahan Olusanya, Country Director for Tek Experts Nigeria, during the Center‘s inauguration in Lagos.

“As part of Tek Expert’s dedication to investing in and advancing the Nigerian technology industry, we are pleased to expand our services to include cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions and services, ensuring that their data and operations remain protected against ever-evolving cyber threats.”

Tek Experts is already doing exploits in the tech talent sector, having over 6,000 skilled professionals globally, with 2,000 strategically positioned in Nigeria. From Nigeria’s biggest banks to renowned technology giants, the company has partners including Microsoft, Amazon, Vodafone and others. Now, with Cytek, Tek Experts venture goes beyond talent provision, enhancing its cybersecurity expertise.

“We’re thrilled to establish this crucial cybersecurity hub in Nigeria, extending our reach across West Africa,” emphasized Anat Garty, Chief Cybersecurity Architect at Cytek.

“Our team of cybersecurity experts remains at the forefront of threat intelligence, constantly evolving our strategies to shield our clients from emerging threats. The SOC empowers businesses across diverse industries – especially those handling sensitive data and relying heavily on technology, like financial institutions, healthcare organizations, retailers, and telecoms – with a proactive approach to cybersecurity. It enables them to operate securely and confidently in today’s digital landscape,” asserted Garty.

Cytek brings to the table over 150 cybersecurity experts, a team of vigilant individuals working together from across the globe, with a strong presence in Nigeria. Their arsenal? Managed security services designed to shield organizations from the innovative cyber threats growing daily.

The Cytek SOC rests on three foundational pillars, forming an impenetrable protection against cyber threats. 

The first pillar, Capability Building, provides clients with the knowledge and skills to navigate the cybersecurity sector. Through comprehensive training programs and educational resources, Cytek empowers organizations to understand risk, identify vulnerabilities, and implement best practices. 

No longer passive bystanders, organizations become active participants in their own security, building a foundation of awareness that serves as the first line of defense.

Next stands the Advisory and Implementation pillar. Cytek acts as a trusted advisor and implementation partner, guiding organizations in establishing strong security protocols. Working in close collaboration, Cytek’s expert security team analyzes unique needs and vulnerabilities, crafting bespoke security protocols and infrastructure tailored to each client’s environment. 

This tailored approach ensures that every digital doorway, every access point, is secured with the most effective tools and procedures, leaving no space for attackers to exploit.

Finally, the Managed Security Services, ceaselessly monitoring and managing client security infrastructures. This 24/7 watch provides a shield against evolving threats. Advanced technology scans for anomalies, detects intrusions before they materialize, and triggers swift, coordinated responses to neutralize any potential attack. With threats neutralized and vulnerabilities identified, Cytek engineers implement effective countermeasures, constantly strengthening the digital walls against future incursions.

These three pillars, seamlessly interlinked, form the Cytek SOC’s firm defense system. Providing clients with knowledge, building customized defenses, and maintaining perpetual vigilance, the Cytek SOC ensures that clients can operate with confidence in the ever-shifting digital sector.

Cytek’s SOC leverages the Microsoft Sentinel, an AI-driven platform that acts as a vigilant sentinel, constantly scanning for threats. From proactive threat detection to rapid incident response and comprehensive endpoint defense, Sentinel stands in as the brainpower behind Cytek’s solid security framework.

For companies that already have an in-house cybersecurity team, Cytek recognizes this and emphasizes collaboration. It offers a range of services that seamlessly integrate with existing infrastructure, providing expert support in areas like threat hunting, incident response, and intelligence gathering, filling any gaps and bolstering overall security posture.

Tek Experts, a leading global provider of technical talent solutions, has recently announced plans to open a new Security Operations Centre (SOC) under its cybersecurity business, Cytek in Victoria Island, Lagos.

Backed by Microsoft’s industry leading, AI-enabled Sentinel platform, the SOC will deliver a full suite of cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions, providing round-the-clock protection for government entities and businesses with operations in Nigeria and West Africa.

The Tek Experts managed SOC is operated by a team of cybersecurity experts and is based on a solid and innovative methodology.

Leveraging Microsoft’s AI-powered technology, cyber threats can be pinpointed and investigated at a pace that far exceeds human capability.

This will enable Tek Experts to identify potential threats with forensic accuracy and devise and implement mitigation plans at superior speed.

Yaniv Natan, Founder of YNV Group, said:

“Nigeria has always been a strategically important market for us, so we are excited to establish a presence in Lagos. Our intercontinental network means we are in the unique position of being able to deliver genuinely seamless, 24/7, “follow the sun” cybersecurity services, all powered by Microsoft’s world-class AI technology. We are delighted to provide Nigeria’s tech, financial and business community with the confidence to expand rapidly in the knowledge they have the best cybersecurity tools at their disposal.”

As part of YNV Group, the multinational family of companies that includes businesses in technology, real estate, and financial services, Tek Experts is a Microsoft partner whose clients benefit from the Group’s more than 6,000 global technical experts, of which 2,000 are based in Nigeria, to deliver comprehensive cybersecurity managed services, including, Integrated monitoring and detection, Incident response, SecOPs and Threat intelligence.

“We actively seek opportunities to help clients gain easier access to our technology, which is why we’re excited that Tek is establishing their SOC on Microsoft technology. We look forward to working closely together to integrate Tek Experts’ cybersecurity expertise with our AI capability to protect businesses and organizations in Nigeria against the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats.”

The SOC will operate from Tek Experts’ current location on Victoria Island, with 24/7 security with uninterrupted electricity support up to 20 days backup.

The Lagos SOC is Tek’s first in Africa, and builds on their international presence, with a network spanning North America, Central America, Europe, Asia and the African continent.

Tek Experts was nominated and clinched the coveted awards for the success of its suite of managed IT and tech staffing solutions, which has contributed immensely to deepening capacity building in digital skills and the overall growth of the IT industry in Nigeria.

Started in 2019 to celebrate influential non-listed companies in the real sector of the Nigerian economy, the Nigeria Business Leadership Award has become a coveted prestigious platform that draws attention to remarkable accomplishments by operators across several industries.

The award, therefore, underscorThe award, therefore, underscores Tek Experts’ contributions to the Nigerian economy through innovative solutions that have shaped the IT industry.es Tek Experts’ contributions to the Nigerian economy through innovative solutions that have shaped the IT industry.

Olugbolahan Olusanya, the Country Manager of Tek Experts, who received the award in the company of Adewale Adeyemi, Tek Experts’ Head of Executive Business Development, and Abolaji Abubakar, Sales Manager, expressed delight at the recognition and promised to sustain the momentum through quality, excellent IT support services delivery.

He said, “We’re excited about this. This is a recognition of the impact we are making in the Tech/IT ecosystem in Nigeria. For us, this is dedicated to the over 2000 employees in Nigeria committed to maintaining our position as global provider of technical talent solutions and trusted partner to some of the world’s largest and most-respected organizations. We also dedicate this to our counterparts in Africa, and everyone on the global scene. Thank you all and thank you BusinessDay.”

Speaking further, the elated Olusanya said, “Over the past few years, Tek Experts has remained at the forefront of technical talent innovation and this recognition attests to its impact in the ecosystem as well as an acknowledgment that the industry has paid attention. There is a technological evolution that is driving the fourth industrial revolution and what Tek Experts is doing will secure a place for all those willing to play an active part in it.

“We have a lot of confidence in the potential of this market and we do not take for granted the expectations of the market on us. This recognition inspires us to do more and I assure all our stakeholders that we will not drop the ball. We remain committed to discovering and developing technical talents needed to support the growth of the ecosystem and the economy at large.”

With over 2,000 employees in Nigeria alone, Tek Experts has grown to become one of the fastest-growing tech talent solutions companies in the country. Since launching in 2018, the company has made a significant impact in the Nigerian IT industry offering strategic technical support to top players across various industries.

Tek Experts is also reputed for its great work culture which earned it the Jobberman’s award of the “best place to work” recently.

Only a few months ago, Tek Experts made the nomination list of the “The Most Innovative Tech Company of the Year” category alongside global technology giants such as Microsoft, Meta, and Google in the 2022 Gage Awards.

Osoba joins AppZone from Tek Experts where he led Marketing and Corporate Communications across the company’s Africa region.

In his new role, Osoba will oversee the marketing, branding, and storytelling efforts at AppZone.

Founded in 2008, Appzone, Africa’s no.1 Fintech Software Engineering firm has evolved into a payment infrastructure company.

Its Layer-1 Blockchain network digitizes Fiat payments and enables the transition to digital currencies while connecting previously excluded financial institutions into an all-inclusive payment ecosystem.

In December of 2021, Appzone launched ZONE, Africa’s first decentralized payment network which is set to disrupt Africa’s fintech space.

Before joining Tek Experts, Olayiwola  Osoba led marketing, corporate communications, sales, and partnership efforts for several global and local technology companies.

During his time as Andela’s Regional Marketing Manager, he was responsible for the company’s regional marketing operations and brand-building efforts, including end-to-end management of talent supply generation projects, co-marketing activities, and all CSR initiatives in West Africa.

During his time at Intel, Osoba supported Intel’s PC acceleration project in Africa. The project delivered strong growth records in the adoption per household in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya between 2017 and 2018 and ensured sustainability in an increasingly demanding marketplace.

Osoba is passionate about the growth of Africa’s tech ecosystem and spends his time volunteering, supporting and offering FREE specialized advisory and marketing consulting services to a long list of tech startups in Africa.

Olayiwola Osoba holds a bachelor’s degree from Babcock University and an MBA from Quantic School of Business and Technology in Washington DC.

Osoba is a member of The Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK, and a member of the Advertising Practitioners Commission of Nigeria.

Osoba’s career experience will come in handy with guiding AppZone’s marketing and storytelling goals and executing the strategies that will be key to the success of the company’s transformation.

Lars has international experience as MD/CEO in Telecommunications/ICT, Renewables, and Professional services in Sub Saharan Africa, Europe, and Latin America. He has been entrusted with leadership positions in large, transformative, high-tech, fast-moving organizations together with qualified peers and teams.

As MD, Lars has led Tek Experts to become a leading provider of technical support and professional services to large technology enterprises in Nigeria. Following the success recorded in Nigeria, Tek Experts launched its second Africa operations center in Rwanda in September 2021.

With a highly specialized technology focus, the company is redefining the industry, making tech support a highly strategic, value-creation engine for today’s digitally transformed enterprises. With 5,000 employees across seven global offices and 1800+ of them in Nigeria, Tek Experts has built a reputation for deep technical expertise and capabilities as a seamless extension of their clients. The company operates a follow-the-sun model that transcends borders, languages, and time zones to deliver exceptional services.

Tek Experts is part of the YNV Group, a global holding company dedicated to helping people around the world thrive and grow in the modern digital world.

In this interview with Peter Oluka, the editor of TechEconomy.ng, Lars described Nigeria as ranking high among the best locations worldwide for accessing a quality talent pool.

As a passionate economic development agent, Lars called for an environment that facilitates startups and makes it easy to start new companies.

Excerpt: 

Tell us more about Tek Experts in terms of the problems you solve, and opportunities you’ve found in this market

Lars: Both the team and I are particularly proud of the important role the group is playing in this market and beyond. The group consists of several companies; Tek Experts is the oldest one where we give deep technical cloud support. We do that in seven different locations worldwide and Nigeria is one of them.

The latest addition to that is Rwanda, where we set up operations on the 1st of September, 2021. As part of our portfolio of companies, we also have elev8; our training and digital skilling center. Elev8’s main goal is to upskill people who want to become part of what I call ‘the digital economy. By growing in their careers, they become better professionals, improve the quality of their lives, and contribute to the local economy.

YNV Group also develops a talent and career management software platform called Wize.

Wize is a valuable tool that helps companies strategically know, grow, and retain world-class teams.

In this way, companies can assess the skilling needs for certain positions and create a roadmap and upskilling initiatives to help people gain new skills and grow in their careers.

Then we have our property business, which is called Everty. Everty is essentially our insight and understanding that when we have long-term commitments, both to our staff and employees, that we also need the long-term capability to manage our environment, and that’s why we actually manage our own properties today, both in Nigeria and in other locations.

And the fifth and last addition to the group is Monifai which is operating only in Costa Rica for the time being. We are assessing whether we should bring Monifai into the Nigerian market as a microcredit lending platform. We’re exploring the options; firstly, how we can leverage the product for our employees inside the group, and secondly whether it makes sense to launch it to a broader audience in Nigeria.

Looking particularly into Tek Experts, we had a great journey to growth. In 2017, we took a very strategic decision to establish our presence in Nigeria. chose Nigeria because it offers access to a talent pool of skilled young people.

We started on a small scale in 2018. We have now moved beyond this humble beginning, grew our team tremendously, and now employ almost 2000 people in our Nigeria location. This proves that great talent is available here in Nigeria. It also proves that the collaboration with elev8 and Wize allows us to upskill local talent and help them grow their careers.

Today, we’re one of the biggest contributors to what we call “employability”, especially in the tech sector here in Nigeria, and particularly Lagos. That’s something we’re proud of.

A couple of years after our initial investment here, we started looking into other regions in other countries and we decided to expand our operations in Rwanda. We leveraged many of our very talented Nigerian employees to help us kickstart our new office in Rwanda. Some of our people moved down to Kigali to support our Rwanda operations.

And now we’re also building a talent pool in Rwanda together with the official authorities, essentially to do the same thing as we have done successfully in Nigeria.

For a company that is listening to us or is going to read this interview, what are the      pain points that Tek Experts is trying to remove from their client’s shoulders? How can Tek Experts support potential clients looking for a technical support partner?

Lars:

Our role as Tek Experts is to make sure that our clients deliver exceptional customer experiences. We work with enterprises that are looking to grow even further and we’re focused on powering their success. When you have a problem with existing capacity or you need to solve technical problems that occur on your cloud platforms, our role is to make sure that the customer experience is absolutely top-notch.

It’s our job to solve any problems and questions that might occur and guarantee a great experience for our clients’ customers. That is how we add value for our clients.

You’ve been in this industry for some time now and then you’ve seen some gaps in the sub-Saharan African markets in terms of service delivery/service industry. How can these gaps be closed?

Lars:

Well, we’ve seen a lot of opportunities. We have established a functional business that makes a major contribution to the local economy – both in Nigeria and in Rwanda.

We observe that the cloud economy is growing both in the region and on a global scale. It grew even during the COVID-19 pandemic when many traditional industries experienced difficulties. Meanwhile, the cloud economy continued to grow here in Nigeria and in the whole sub-Saharan Africa.

Also, we found great local talent – skilled and talented young people who are driven and tech-savvy. Our goal was to give them an opportunity to develop their skills even further while working with the best names in tech.

Last but not least, we collaborated with public administrations, universities to enhance the existing skillsets of young talent so they can continue to learn and play a crucial role in the local cloud economy.

As we now have a new variant of COVID and businesses are beginning to revisit their business continuity plans and other anti-epidemic measures, which they had relaxed because of the vaccines. What do you think is going to happen from next year in terms of the trends companies should look out for?

Lars:

We are not going back to the past; we’re moving forward and sadly; we have to learn how to live with COVID. Taking care of our people has always been our top priority during these uncertain times.

We’ve worked closely with the Lagos State authorities and fellow governments and we have been fully compliant with all rules and measures in Nigeria.

Also, we were able to quickly transition to more flexible ways of work in a secure and effective manner because we had already invested in the latest technology, security, people management, and training. The pandemic enabled us to prove we are well-positioned to support the needs of tech businesses and our people.

Tek Experts has done a lot investing in digital skilling and employee development, growing a skilled workforce for the ICT industry in Nigeria and now you’re going to Rwanda and possibly to other African countries to serve the ecosystem. Are the opportunities cutting across the board or are you      focused on senior or junior level?

Lars:

There are almost 180 universities in Nigeria. We employ a lot of talented young people who come from  IT or telecommunication backgrounds. It’s a chance for them to work in a supportive and multinational environment where they can develop their skills and grow professionally.

But there’s more. We’re also offering opportunities to people who don’t have an IT background but have earned a math or science degree.  Also, we’re fully dedicated to upskilling our people and we have launched an additional program where we train them and help them grow from junior to seniors. Then, they can start our more advanced training programs and grow in their careers even further.

We’ve also trained people with a non-IT background to take on very complex IT support roles in our company and drive customer success. This is a great achievement because it allows us to broaden the funnel and offer opportunities to a wider pool of driven people who want to develop their skills and become part of the growing IT segment.

Also, we’re dedicated to upskilling many women who want to work in tech. In Nigeria, we partnered with Microsoft to recruit, develop, and upskill talent for employability into the tech industry as part of their Leap Apprenticeship Program. In the first 2 years of the program, we trained and hired 40 girls as M365 and Power Apps Support Engineers.

Coming back to the issue of skills, Microsoft released a report recently which said that in the next few years there will be a need for 800 million people to change their skills to be able to fit into the digital economy. With what you’ve seen so far in terms of recruitment and what you’ve done so far, do you think universities are turning out graduates with the right skills? You’ve also talked about the curriculum being reshaped to fit into the ecosystem, but are there other things you think the private sector and government can work out to ensure that young people get the relevant skills for the future workplace?

Lars:

There’s a huge global demand for IT skills. And in many sectors, there’s a shortage of skilled IT professionals. Reskilling and upskilling can help address this problem. At Tek Experts, we invest very heavily in digital skilling and employee development, growing a skilled workforce for the ICT industry. We offer both a place to develop IT skills and a place to leverage those skills with job opportunities supporting some of the most cutting-edge technology for the biggest global brands.

Already, Tek Experts has 1800+ engineers in Nigeria and you’ve gone to Rwanda. So let’s revisit this issue of the launch in Rwanda. What should we expect from Tek Experts from next year? What are the growth trajectory and areas you are looking to improve or enhance? Or would you launch in other markets in Africa or you’d just consolidate in Nigeria and Rwanda? What happens in 2022?

Lars:

We’re laser-focused on growing the company in line with the business opportunities that present themselves to us. Expanding to new locations depends on two things; our further growth and whether this is aligned with our strategy and goals.

Also, I’d like to mention our sister company elev8 that helps enterprises and governments reskill and upskill their workforces. Elev8 is actively working with various stakeholders in the sector in both Nigeria and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa to make sure that we can train and upskill people across public administrations and enterprises.

During the pandemic even at the point where banks would lay off staff, Tek Experts was recruiting more people and engaging more hands. What was the magic?

Lars:

 We have seen the rapidly accelerating digitalization across industries drive a significant increase in demand for software and technology services. This has put an even stronger focus on support services in the technology space and our customers are asking for more services during the pandemic.

We managed to grow our talent base in Nigeria by more than 40% amidst an economic meltdown (during the Covid-19 pandemic). This was a major success for the local teams who kept achieving great results in times of crisis.  Also, our engineering team in Nigeria has grown tremendously (9 times) since the launch of our operations in 2018 – from 200 to 1800 highly skilled engineers.

Is Tek Expert prepared to work with Microsoft on the Leap project if the opportunity presents itself?

Lars:

Yeah! Absolutely.

Peter: Thank you so much Lars, for your time.

Lars:

Thank you, Peter and the team, at TechEconomy.ng