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'Skills, a challenge for African start-ups'

Africa , 12 Jan 2015

'Skills, a challenge for African start-ups'

Technology start-ups across the continent are still finding it hard to acquire the right type of skills set to push their business further, according to Manuel Koser, founding partner and managing director of Silvertree Capital.

Silvertree Capital has invested in several market leading tech companies in Africa, including Zando and African e-commerce giant Jumia.

"It's still tough, it's still difficult but getting better," Koser told ITWeb Africa. "Cape Town is already difficult, we struggle to get developers. It is a scarce resource ... same as management talent."

Koser pointed out that education in Africa might not be suited to producing sufficiently strong tech talent. He referred to South Africa and its low global ranking in mathematics and science by the World Economic Forum last year and said this has not helped in grooming good technology talent from the country.

The South African education department has vehemently refuted the report.

"At the same time it's a great opportunity to get involved in the education sector," Koser added. "But for now it is tricky for everyone to get developers."

Many companies continue to look to invest resources in education in order to acquire relevant and market-ready workers.

Companies such as Kenya's telecommunication giant, Safaricom have opted to train their staff to keep them on par with the needs of the business. Safaricom has a strong partnership with Stathmore University, one of the leading business universities, to seek and train top technology talent under Safaricom Academy.

Last year in April 98 students graduated from Samsung Academy, where they were taught how to deal with hardware.

Silvertree Capital is still looking to invest in more technology companies in South Africa and Nigeria while still searching for more investment opportunities in Africa.

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