Why Mark Zuckerberg is paying for young Africans to learn code
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative plans to make its first major investment in a startup that links young Africans with American tech companies.
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the F8 Facebook Developer Conference in San Francisco this spring. Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan will invest in software development training in Africa through the start-up Andela.
Eric Risberg/AP/File
Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, made news last December when they announced that they would put 99 percent of their Facebook shares over the course of their lives into a for-profit, but for-good, foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative LLC.
In an open letter, the couple said that they will use the foundation to invest in 鈥減ersonalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities.鈥� Now, with the company set up and those shares valued at $48 billion, the big question was: Where to begin?
Apparently, in Africa.
Mr. Zuckerberg and Dr. Chan are reportedly making the foundation鈥檚 first investment of $24 million in a company that trains software developers in Africa.
The two-year-old company, Andela, based in New York with offices in Lagos and Nairobi, is a talent accelerator built on a , according to chief executive officer Jeremy Johnson.
The first is that there is a huge American demand for software developers and a shortage of Americans trained in the programming languages necessary to fill those jobs. The second is that Africa has the youngest, of any continent. Andela aims to train the best African minds , according to its website.
Mr. Johnson and co-founder Iyinoluwa Aboyeji wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal last December in which they posed the question: What if Mark Zuckerberg 鈥渉ad been born into a working-class family in Nigeria or Kenya? 鈥�
Zuckerberg, it appears, took notice of that question. In a statement about his and Dr. Chan鈥檚 investment he said: 鈥漌e live in a world where . Andela鈥檚 mission is to close that gap. Companies get access to great developers, and developers in Africa get the opportunity to use their skills and support their communities.鈥�
Andela鈥檚 operating premise is simple: Applicants apply and take an aptitude test. If they are part of the they will join on for a six-month training period followed by a 3-and-a-half year paid 鈥渁pprenticeship鈥� with , which they do from the Andela campuses in Lagos and Nairobi, Business Insider reports. The program has trained about 聽since it launched, writes Forbes.
鈥淭he goal is to cultivate a next generation of founders and CTOs of great companies across Africa,鈥� CEO Jeremy Johnson told Forbes. Johnson says that the company is not profitable at this time, but instead is focusing on building partnerships with tech companies and thinking about how they can maintain quality while scaling up.
He says they plan to after this round of investment, which also includes funding from Google parent company Alphabet Inc. and returning first-round investors, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The company is not alone in working to foster developing and programming knowhow in Africa. For example, the Nigerian and the government, through its tech-related ministries, has been promoting the use of domestically developed software and investing in software development. The government announced an initiative for Nigerians educated in software development, Nigeria's Technology Times reported today.
A 2011 article in The New York Times focusing on the addition of a聽computer science college to Makerere University聽in聽Kampala, Uganda, noted that the on the continent is in South Africa.
With its apprenticeship component, Andela is working specifically to link a select group of Africans outside the continent to Western business and tech.
Johnson says this makes them part of a workplace revolution in which employees don鈥檛 need to be based in an office to be an integral member of a team. The Andela website underlines this, writing that the company 鈥渟eamlessly integrates our developers into your team.鈥� US tech companies pay Andela, who then pays their students, known as fellows, above average wages for local developers, says Business Insider.
After the four years of training and work, the graduating fellows can use those skills in myriad ways.
Or as current Nigerian fellow, Chibuzor Obiora tells Business Insider, "Software development is a tool, but it's up to you what you do with it.鈥�