Microsoft's Africa Development Centre in Nairobi's Dunhill Towers has closed, leaving more than 400 engineers without jobs. The closure follows the shutdown of the company's Lagos engineering hub in May 2024, and comes alongside the closure of sales offices in Windhoek, Abidjan, Dakar, Accra, and Port-Louis. Microsoft says it "remains committed to Kenya," but the pattern on the ground is harder to read that way.
What makes the Nairobi decision sting is that performance was not the issue. Employees familiar with the centre say it had no quality or performance problems, and some had received strong appraisal ratings shortly before learning their roles were at risk. Microsoft has not publicly linked the closure to any performance concerns. Only about five employees across customer, partner, recruitment, and sales functions are expected to remain.
The centre was announced in 2019 as part of a $100 million commitment to build engineering capacity across the continent. The plan was to hire 500 engineers between Nairobi and Lagos, giving African talent a chance to work on products used around the world. That ambition lasted less than a decade. With both hubs now shuttered, Microsoft has effectively exited the engineering business in Africa.
The ripple effects reach further than the 400-plus people now looking for work. Governments and universities that pointed to Microsoft's presence as proof of Africa's rising place in the global technology industry now have to reckon with that bet being called in early.
The timing of these closures is not lost on anyone watching the AI industry. Companies building artificial intelligence tools have raised enormous sums on the promise that their technology will reshape how businesses operate. Layoffs attributed to cost-cutting and automation only strengthen that investment case, and the workers losing their jobs end up, however unintentionally, becoming part of the pitch.
Originally published by TechCabal.