Andela, Africa-focused tech talent accelerator, is axing about 420 jobs as it restructures its talent pool to “more closely align with global market demand”, the firm said in a statement.
Under the restructuring exercise 250 junior engineers and staff from its Nigerian and Ugandan hubs will be leaving the organisation.
Another 170 engineers may also be affected in its Kenyan hub.
According to the company, “Andela is now working with all impacted and potentially impacted employees and is committed to providing a holistic professional and financial support package,” it said.
“The company is partnering with CcHUB (Nigeria), iHub (Kenya), and Innovation Village (Uganda) to help connect impacted developers with opportunities in their local ecosystems.
“Together, they have identified over 60 companies who are looking to hire top quality junior engineering talent. These hubs will also offer impacted engineers the opportunity to use their co-working spaces free of charge for the next three months.”
Commenting on the action, Omowale David-Ashiru, Andela Nigeria country director 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 restructuring, and we will provide them with the resources they need to succeed in their next steps.”
In his remarks, Jeremy Johnson, Andela’s co-founder and CEO, said the company has to grow its senior talent base faster because there is a higher demand for experienced talent.
“This shift in demand also means that we now have more junior talent than we are able to place. 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,” he said.
“Five years ago, we launched Andela to solve a global challenge: Brilliance is evenly distributed, but opportunity is not. To succeed in our long-term mission, we have to make tough decisions to continue growing a company that we know will change the way the world thinks about talent.”
The company said it has plans to hire 700 experienced engineers by the end of 2020.
