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Andela lays off 420 staff in Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya

By Timileyin Omilana
17 September 2019   |   12:49 pm
About 420 software engineers have been laid off by Andela, in a shift of focus, which the company's co-founder Jeremy Johnson said will help it "align with what the market needs." The 420 persons were junior engineers working on Andela's D0 programme. 170 other persons are "potentially impacted" in Kenya. "Today, we are announcing that…

About 420 software engineers have been laid off by Andela, in a shift of focus, which the company’s co-founder Jeremy Johnson said will help it “align with what the market needs.”

The 420 persons were junior engineers working on Andela’s D0 programme. 170 other persons are “potentially impacted” in Kenya.

“Today, we are announcing that we are closing the D0 program in Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda,” Johnson said in a blog post on Tuesday.

“In addition, we will be letting go of approximately 250 Andelans in Nigeria and Uganda, with an additional 170 potentially impacted in Kenya, who we don’t believe we’ll be able to find meaningful work for over the next year.”

The layoffs come as the startup released first time earnings figures indicating it will surpass $50 million in annual revenues for 2019.

The D0 programme is for developers in training. Johnson said Andela will now focus on recruiting senior talent.

Johnson added that Andela had “partnered with innovation hubs in each country (CcHUB in Nigeria, iHub in Kenya, and Innovation Village in Uganda) to help connect the impacted developers with opportunities in their local ecosystem.

“Together, we have identified over 60 companies who are looking to hire top quality junior engineering talent. In addition, these hubs will offer impacted engineers the opportunity to use their co-working spaces free of charge for the next three months,” he added.

The company launched the Power of X campaign aimed at upping the recruitment of mid-level and senior engineers in May. It, however, did not say it will be laying off junior engineers at the time.

“At Andela, we expect our Software Engineers to gain the skills, experiences and networks that will enable them to become innovators and tech leaders in Africa and we are excited to now open up our recruitment funnel to diversify and enhance our talent pool,” Omowale David-Ashiru, Country Director, Andela Nigeria, said in May.

Founded in 2014, Andela has offices in New York and five African countries: Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Egypt.

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