ERP giant to invest $500m to 2020 to boost African operations
PFUNGWA SERIMA SAP Africa’s focus over the next year will be on knowledge transfer and skills development, coverage and partnerships
Enterprise resource planning giant SAP will invest $500-million in its African operations up to 2020, with the short-term aim of broadening its skills development initiatives and local presence on the continent, says SAP Africa CEO Pfungwa Serima.
“Each quarter, SAP Africa will motivate its investment decisions for a portion of the $500-million to the SAP board of directors, based on growth prospects and business objectives,” explains SAP executive board member Robert Enslin.
SAP Africa’s goals for this year include broadening its pilot skills development initiatives, opening its Angola offices and broadening its coverage of the continent, explains Serima.
It is also implementing a regional support system, where francophone countries will be supported from its Morocco hub, lusophone countries from its Angola hub, and anglophone East, West and Southern Africa countries from its Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa hubs respectively.
Further, SAP Africa will tap its network of partners to provide the support and skills required by customers on the continent, including direct client support by these partners to enable implementation, customisation and integration of SAP systems into these client companies.
SAP will train up to 10 000 information technology consultants in Africa by 2020 from its hub countries through collaboration with governments and universities.
“Our focus over the next year will be on knowledge transfer and skills development, coverage and partnerships,” says Serima.
“Our pilot skills development initiative in Kenya will serve as the basis of our skills development initiatives in Africa, which emphasises training and workplace experience. Out of the 67 graduates of the pilot initiative, 65 are employed by SAP or its clients in Kenya, highlighting the demand for experienced professionals.”
To achieve its objectives, SAP Africa will also strengthen its partner community, which partly entails improving its services to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and enabling them to run their SAP systems.
As about 90% of Africa’s gross domestic product is generated by SMBs, SAP Africa will also enable them to co-innovate new solutions specific to their models, in cooperation with SAP’s partners, says SAP Africa COO Derek Kudsee.
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