Nigeria’s growing tech industry has suffered a major blow as reports indicate that Microsoft is contemplating shutting down its African Development Centre located in Lagos.
If verified, this action would have a significant impact on the nation’s technological environment, possibly affecting employment prospects and industry innovation.
Industry insiders told The Guardian on Tuesday that Microsoft notified employees on Monday of the closure plans.
The newspaper claims that the impacted workers will continue to be covered by health insurance and receive salary payments through June.
When contacted by the newspaper, an unidentified source in Microsoft’s Lagos office, however, declined to confirm or deny the closure.
Although the exact reasons for the decision are still unknown, sources indicate that Nigeria’s difficult economic circumstances probably had some influence.
The closure appears to affect only the ADC’s West Africa operations in Nigeria, not its East Africa facility in Nairobi, Kenya.
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Microsoft established facilities in Lagos and Nairobi as part of its $100 million African Development Centers initiative, which was introduced in 2019.
Upon opening in 2022, the Nigeria center employed more than 120 engineers, eventually hiring over 200 people in total.
At the time, Gafar Lawal, Managing Director of Microsoft ADC West Africa, said as quoted by The Guardian, “We intended to recruit 500 full-time engineers by the end of the year or by 2023. However, currently, we have exceeded 500. This is to tell you about the abundance of talents we have in Africa.”
The Lagos Centre was inaugurated to develop innovative technology solutions to address challenges across Africa and globally.
A Microsoft statement stated, “This also creates opportunities for engineers to do meaningful work from their home countries and be plugged into a global engineering and development organisation.”
