The world is being built on code. Africa is not typically associated with software engineers. The African Union comprises 55 countries and represents 1.2 billion people. Only 2 countries were not colonized. Disadvantaged people in Africa have raw talent and a unique motivation to learn and succeed. They simply lack the means and opportunity.
Africa4Code provides an opportunity to anyone with aptitude regardless of race, gender, sexuality, religion, nationality or politics. Donor funding is applied to vocational training and skills development. We're training engineers in Africa at a cost roughly equivalent to minimum wage in New York and California.
Africa is the fastest growing continent for software developers globally. Rather than the world associating Africa with poverty and mineral resources, we want Africa to be associated with code.
Africa4Code is helping solve the global shortage of digital skills by training software engineers and supplying that talent to companies worldwide. Our engineers are dedicated technologists, who believe in self-improvement and working hard for a better life.
Africa4Code provides software-engineering-as-a-service by helping companies build distributed teams seamlessly and cost-effectively. Our engineers work as full-time members of software development teams at tech and non-tech companies. We charge clients an all-inclusive flat monthly rate for our full-time engineers.
Africa4Code originated in South Africa, where Amazon established its AWS Africa data centre in Cape Town and Microsoft established two Azure data centres in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The social enterprise has a globally distributed leadership team with business development functions in New York and London.
Wits University is internationally recognized for its excellent research, high academic standards and its commitment to social justice in Africa.
Wits delivers high level scarce skills for the global knowledge economy by interacting with public and private sectors to effect meaningful change in society. Wits is making a difference with over 50 active projects in Africa. The University is represented globally through partnerships, collaborations, staff, student exchanges and alumni. Alumni have access to exclusive services and networks.
Wits is also the co-founder of the African Research Universities Alliance. More than 85% of Wits research is published in accredited international journals. Wits is at the forefront of encouraging cross-disciplinary research and collaborating with the best researchers and institutions across the globe.
The University produces more millionaires than any other university in South Africa. Graduates have become global leaders in every field of endeavour. Through their civic engagement, they have built cultural institutions, fought injustices and made their communities better places to live.
In a ground-breaking move, Africa4Code and Wits University have created a long-term formal collaborative Alliance. The Alliance provides engineers and clients with a combination of academic and tech industry expertise, as well as geographic coverage which is unmatched in Africa. It is the only offering across relevant technologies to support clients worldwide, including as they invest into or out of Africa. The success of working together through the Alliance will be most evident in complex projects.
The Alliance is highly synergistic as the values of Africa4Code and Wits University are aligned. We are certain of the opportunities that our relationship can bring. We are committed to investing in our relationship and building an incredible platform to ensure exceptional training of engineers and services for clients. We are proud of establishing our relationship to date and excited about what we will achieve in the years to come.
Student engineers and clients get the best of both worlds – academic excellence from Wits and world-class coding services from Africa4Code. As markets and clients have evolved, the flexibility of this combination has become more relevant than ever, allowing us to mix and match talent from within the Alliance to service clients in South Africa and elsewhere on the continent, as well as worldwide.
Professor Zeblon Vilakazi, vice-chancellor and principal of Wits University, has a keen interest in technology. His vision is to build a "high-tech, high-growth start-up ecosystem around Wits with synergistic research collaboration and funding opportunities". Africa4Code is positioned to help realize Vilakazi's dream of having a local, smaller version of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) tech ecosystem.
Phase 1 is equipping software engineers with the relevant coding skills and industry experience. Phase 2 is supporting those engineers with funding and expertise so they can develop their own ideas into apps, platforms and businesses. The Alliance framework, to incubate these startups and accelerate their commercialization, will drive innovation through digital skills, and support the originators, innovators and critical thinkers who can help solve the problems of the 21st Century.
We address a global demand of companies looking for software engineering talent to satisfy their growth needs and have specific expertise to align engineers to the gaming industry.
We combine a non-profit Academy with for-profit Services to create a self-sustaining operation that allows talented Africans to become world class software engineers.
We enable companies to satisfy diversity scorecards, benefit from tax incentives and fulfil their demand for software engineers.
We give disciplined, motivated people with ability and limited financial resources an opportunity to become professional software engineers.
Aptitude testing means talented people do not require a degree to be accepted by our industry aligned vocational training programs.
Our engineers are placed with companies and become part of their distributed teams, working alongside the best in a global industry.
We ensure people have an opportunity to work and support themselves and their families.
Goal 1
We provide vocational training for coding skills that are in unprecedented demand globally.
Goal 4
We ensure our operations and programs are gender equitable from the outset to empower women.
Goal 5
We employ engineers and place them with companies that are immersed in the digital economy.
Goal 8
We operate an ecosystem that creates employment and fosters innovation with engineers.
Goal 9
We reduce inequality by equipping people with skills necessary to create their own livelihoods.
Goal 10
We nuture a tech ecosystem that helps make communities and cities resilient and sustainable.
Goal 11
We execute our work in partnership with local, national and international organisations.
Goal 17
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