General19.07.2013

SAP Africa Partners with Techno Brain to address Africa skills shortage

SAP Skills for Africa programme gains momentum in the continent through partner commitment

SAP Africa has signed up Techno Brain Ltd. as an official SAP Africa Education delivery partner. This was announced today at SAP Africa’s first-ever Partner Summit held in Cape Town. Techno Brain is a custom software application provider that offers innovative software solutions to government, NGOs, and private organisations.

With operations based in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, Techno Brain trains more than 10,000 people a year across eight centres worldwide. Under its own strategic initiative called Africa1st, Techno Brain plans to introduce a combination of SAP Education student training kits, SAP e-learning programmes, as well as a hybrid classroom instructor-based teaching model across the continent over the next two years.

There are three objectives to putting education and skills at the centre of Techno Brain’s expansion plan: to build Africa’s own workforce, enable business competitiveness and participation in the African economy and – in alignment with SAP Africa’s objectives – create a centre of excellence. Techno Brain’s Centre of Excellence plan will take place in three phases. Phase one will kick off in the third quarter of this year in Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and Kampala. The second phase will be introduced in the fourth quarter with Lilongwe, Kigali and Addis Ababa. Lastly phase three will commence next year in Lusaka, Lagos and Abuja. Techno Brain’s reach and scope into Africa strengthens SAP’s extensive partner skills building network on the continent.

“Our partnership with SAP to drive skills development is of strategic value,” said Manoj Shanker, Group CEO, Techno Brain. “Our goals for this project are ambitious. As we grow as an organisation, the need for Africa’s skills development grows too. Our mission is clearly aligned with SAP Africa’s goals to create IT skills and employment for the future in Africa.

This partnership comes on the heels of the launch of the SAP Skills for Africa programme that was officially announced in May by SAP’s global co-CEO, Jim Snabe. The programme, a multi-million euro investment, is the African chapter of the SAP Workforce of the Future campaign that is aimed at tackling various complex skills challenges in EMEA.

“Our partners in Africa play a critical role in helping us create a rich talent pool in Africa for the entire SAP ecosystem,” said Pfungwa Serima, CEO, SAP Africa. “We see huge business opportunities for our partners in Africa and recognise that their support is key to our ongoing success.”

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