After making an entry into the Kenyan market last year, Gebeya a platform which serves as an online marketplace for top IT professionals will finally be launching it services on 3rd February 2016. The platform intends to enable IT professionals to showcase and contribute their experience and skills to software projects.
Being that none of the founders are Kenyan, one would wonder why they decided to launch their business in Kenya. According to one of the founders, Amadou Daffe a Senegalese national, the Kenyan market has one of the highest internet penetration rates on the continent. This aside from the fact that Kenya is home to a lot of multinationals and Fortune 500 companies that were projected to accelerate customer acquisition. Also the technology industry is maturing and with a population of 47 million with internet penetration standing at 52.3 %, Kenya is at the lead board in Africa. This has increased the use of technology to foster growth and efficiency that has in turn led to an increased demand for highly skilled professionals in the IT sector. These factors combined are what made the founders choose to venture into the Kenyan market.
Initially when Gebeya came into the market, their intention was to just set up the platform for IT professionals with their IT academy being based in Ethiopia. However, they later came to the realization that there was a need to also have an academy here. This was due to the many enquiries that they got from Kenyans and the fact that the IT professionals who wanted to be on boarded also needed some training to bring them at par with the standards expected at Gebeya. As such the academy will also be launched here which comes as good news to many who were locked out of some IT courses due to prohibitive costs charged by some institutions.
The academy will provide IT professionals in Kenya with access to practical training in software engineering and development. There will also be supplemental training in professional English (written and spoken) and communications to enable developers to eloquently communicate with potential clients and comprehensively capture project information.