Microsoft to empower 50,000 Nigerians with IT, outsourcing skills

[ChromeFoundry]

Monday, 15 December 2008 00:21

Global information and communication giant, Microsoft, has set an ambitious target of training 50,000 Nigerian youths on IT and outsourcing skills. Ken Spann, Developer Platform Evangelist Lead for Microsoft Anglophone West Africa, told Business Day in an interview in Lagos that the initiative is aimed at facilitating the development of a vibrant outsourcing sector that would ultimately make Nigeria the IT Enabled Outsourcing hub in West Africa .

Spann explained that Microsoft would partner with the government, individual and corporate organisations in order to develop the country’s potentials in outsourcing business.

Said he “Our objective within the next five years is to train 50,000 Nigerian youths, especially students, in various areas of information and communication technology using Microsoft curriculum. We want to train developers and people that know how to establish communication solutions based on Microsoft applications. We are ready to provide the help, training and other resources that are required towards empowering Nigerian youths with the necessary information and communications technology skills.

“ Nigeria has the potentials to become the premier outsourcing country in the world. The World Bank has just commissioned a study that says Nigeria can be the premier outsourcing country in the world. Microsoft will be exploring and looking at this opportunity. We shall be partnering with individuals and corporate organisations towards exploring this opportunity .We have plans to raise the intellectual capital and capacity of Nigerians because the future is very bright for the Nigerian economy.”

According to Spann, “If you look at Indian, for instance, everybody there is talking about outsourcing. In India , English is not their language yet they learn English on top of everything else. On the other hand, English is the official language in Nigeria . Therefore, that impediment is already out of the way which makes Nigeria a more favourable outsourcing destination because English is the language for business in the world. With this, it is easy for Microsoft to build IT capacity in Nigeria . The reality is that outsourcing training is part of the Microsoft curriculum which is coming up in the future. We intend to work with the government, corporate organisation universities in strengthening outsourcing initiatives in Nigeria .

Globally, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) and Large Scale Enterprises (LSEs) are constantly searching for economies where cheap and readily available outsourcing skills could be deployed to improve their overall profitability.

Complete Piece: http://www.businessdayonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1883:microsoft-to-empower-50000-nigerians-with-it-outsourcing-skills&catid=81:entrepreneur&Itemid=198

[lapfog_1]

1. Race to the bottom nearing completion

Americans too expensive ---> India

Indians too expensive ---> China

Chinese too expensive ---> Nigeria

Nigerians too expensive ---> (doesn't fucking matter, nobody left to buy the crap, no one needed to take the calls about fixing it)

[endarkenment]

2. A marriage made in heaven!

Dear Sir or Madam,

I would like to help you with your recent blue screen of death problem on your computer. Microsoft has designated specific users such as yourself to be the recipient of a large sum of money on the order of 15,000,000 dollars in compensation for the suffering you have received from their recent release of the Vista Operating System. In order to collect this money you need to send me a certified check for the sum of 10,000 dollars that will be used to establish the wire transfer account for your special Microsoft compensation award.

[psychmommy]

4. omg. this must be a bad joke or something.

let's arm thousands od poor desperate people with it skills and poorly paid jobs, what nightmares are we asking for?

[Rebubula]

7. LOLZ

My first thought too...

[ihavenobias]

3. K & R

[monmouth]

5. Well OKAY! Now will they send me the millions they tell me I have inherited????..n/t

[benld74]

6. And we were JUST getting used to the Fake Emails requesting money

[Azlady]

8. OMG! Is it April Fools Day???? I can't believe this!!!! Geez n/t

[Cronopio]

11. No surprise here. This 2003 article was one of the things that convinced me to leave Microsoft.

The two managers that headed the unit I was in are quoted in this article.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_05/b3818001.htm

Microsoft is adding 10 Indians a month to its 150-engineer center and indirectly employs hundreds more at IT contractors. "It's definitely a cultural change to use foreign workers," says Sivaramakichenane Somasegar, Microsoft's vice-president for Windows engineering. "But if I can save a dollar, hallelujah."

In a recent PowerPoint presentation, Microsoft Corp. (MSFT ) Senior Vice-President Brian Valentine--the No. 2 exec in the company's Windows unit--urged managers to "pick something to move offshore today." In India, said the briefing, you can get "quality work at 50% to 60% of the cost. That's two heads for the price of one."

[idlisambar]

12. where are you now?

[Cronopio]

15. In a far better place, and laughing when I read articles like this.

Not at the workers losing their jobs from outsourcing, but laughing about how right I was about Microsoft in 2003 - and now.

[OhioChick]

16. Well.....color me surprised....NOT. n/t

[specimenfred1984]

9. "Developer Platform Evangelist Lead for Microsoft Anglophone West Africa"

Darn, I had all the qualifications for that position myself! Yeh, that's the ticket.

[Chisox08]

10. So now we can ust give or credit cards directly to them

without depositing a fake check and sending them $900,000 out of $1,000,000

[cornermouse]

13. I wonder when they'll get around to empowering

and outsourcing jobs to Americans. :shrug:

[happylib]

14. how long until they hire the taliban?

It wont shock me when some anti american company like this hires hezbollah or the taliban to meet next quarters profit margin

[sarcasmo]

17. Another Corporate Giant screws America story. Sad.

[blue97keet]

18. Outsourcing to the capital of internet fraud and ID theft,

that will be the death of Microsoft even if buffer overflows don't do the job first.