Andela, an Africa-focused company that builds talented software engineers, has announced the disengagement of about 400 junior engineers and workers in Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya.
The company, in a statement on Tuesday, said the move aligned with the plan to restructure its talent pool in line with global market demand.
Specifically, Andela said those affected by the restructuring are about “250 junior engineers and staff from its Nigeria and Uganda hubs, with another 170 potentially impacted in Kenya.”
The technology company said it had provided a holistic professional and financial support package for the affected employees.
It added that it was partnering with CcHUB (Nigeria), iHub (Kenya), and Innovation Village (Uganda) to help connect impacted developers with opportunities as over 60 companies are looking to hire top quality junior engineering talents.
According to Andela, the “impacted engineers” will have the opportunity to use their co-working spaces of the partner hubs free of charge for the next three months.
Andela co-founder and CEO, Jeremy Johnson, said, “It has also become clear, however, that the majority of the demand is for more experienced talent, and to keep up with it, we need to grow our senior talent base even faster.
“This is a challenge for the business, and for these junior engineers who want, and deserve, authentic work experiences that we are not able to provide.”
The tech company said its plans to hire an additional 700 experienced engineers by the end of 2020 was intact.
Andela Nigeria Country Director, Omowale David-Ashiru, said, “We’re proud of what we have achieved at Andela in five short years; we know the impact we have made both in Nigeria and globally.
“However, we have reached an inflection point that has required a change in strategy, which is why we are announcing these changes to our talent strategy.
“Our immediate focus is on providing practical support to those employees who are impacted by the restructure, and we will provide them with the resources they need to succeed in their next steps.”
The company pledged to continue to invest in the Andela Learning Community, which has already introduced over 30,000 learners from across the continent to software engineering.
