Google has announced its first product development centre in Africa, to be located in Nairobi.

According to Google, the new product development centre will help to create transformative products and services for people in Africa and around the world and will be hiring visionary engineers, product managers, UX designers and researchers to lay the foundation for significant growth in the coming years.

As part of its recruitment drive, the centre is looking for talented, creative people who can help solve difficult and important technical challenges, such as improving the smartphone experience for people in Africa, or building a more reliable internet infrastructure.

Last October at a Google for Africa event, the CEO, Sundar Pichai, announced a plan to invest US$1-billion over the next five years to support Africa’s digital transformation.

“This investment focuses on enabling fast, affordable internet access for more Africans, building helpful products, supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses and helping non-profits to improve lives across Africa. In 2018 Google also opened an AI research centre in Accra, Ghana to help drive useful innovations,” reads an excerpt from a statement released by Google.

VP for Products, Suzanne Frey said: “Google’s mission in Africa is to make the Internet helpful to Africans and partner with African governments, policymakers, educators, entrepreneurs and business to shape the next wave of innovation in Africa. Today I am excited to welcome all Africans passionate about improving the digital experience of African users by building better products to apply for the open roles at our first product development centre in Africa.”

Nitin Gajria, Managing Director for Google in Africa added: “There are 300M internet users in Africa who are young, mobile first and have similar patterns to mobile youth globally. By 2030, Africa will have 800M internet users and a third of the world’s under-35 population. The potential for Africa to become a leading digital economy is right on the horizon and Google is committed to accelerating Africa’s digital transformation through human capital and enabling “African-led solutions to African and global problems” through better products.”

Equiano cable

In March this year, in another development related to Google’s investment in the continent, the Google undersea cable Equiano arrived in Togo that will run from Lisbon in Portugal to Cape Town in South Africa along the African coastline of the Atlantic Ocean.

Google expects internet speeds in Togo to double from the current 10Mbps to 21Mbps in 2025, while retail internet prices are predicted to decline by 14% over the same period.