[kictanet] M-Kopa Solar fires 18% of its staff including all developers, outsources work to a foreign company

Tue Mar 13 08:11:55 EAT 2018

The presumption is that such an entity would've had the potential to attract the best of the developers talent from Kenyan and elsewhere, probably unlike your regular startup without much global attention. We must keep in mind that young people are encouraged, lured and cajoled into tech careers and where this is the direction, they require shockabsorbers to be ready for shortterm career stints.
The people element must keep being of concern just as the myriad business objects. Part of the drive in support and celebration of startups and innovators is to be part of the solution by creating (value) employment opportunities not only making Kenya a consumption market.

In other parts of the world, Robot get fired...;

Humans Couldn't Keep Up with This Burger-Flipping Robot, So They Fired It

Humans Couldn't Keep Up with This Burger-Flipping Robot, So They Fired It

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Humans Couldn't Keep Up with This Burger-Flipping Robot, So They Fired It
 Being a fry cook isn't as easy as it looks, as a burger-flipping robot named "Flippy" recently dis...  |   |

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Be blessed.
Regards/Wangari ---
Pray God Bless. 2013Wangari circa - "Being of the Light, We are Restored Through Faith in Mind, Body and Spirit; We Manifest The Kingdom of God on Earth".

    On Monday, 12 March 2018, 12:13, Watila Alex via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

 Good Afternoon,Are kenyan developers to expensive or unable to meet the grade. or is something else happening here
Article from M-Kopa Solar fires 18% of its staff including all developers, outsources work to a foreign company

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M-Kopa Solar fires 18% of its staff including all developers, outsources...
Kenya based pay-as-you-go solar provider M-KOPA Solar has fired undisclosed number of staff including most of it... |

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Kenya based pay-as-you-go solar provider M-KOPA Solar has fired undisclosed number of staff including most of its developers. According to people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity, the developers work has now been outsourced to a foreign company that is linked to the company’s new CTO.The exercise, which was completed in December last year affected a number of employees and some of whom were absorbed by Safaricom according to the source.We sought comments from the company’s CEO and Co-Founder Jesse Moore, who confirmed the layoffs and explained that they were necessary due to rising costs of technology and there was need to generate profits and give returns to investors.“I can confirm that we completed a restructuring process in December 2017. This was done to reduce fixed costs and keep us on the path to profitability. Overall, the company reduced headcount by 18% covering all departments and all levels in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and UK. We are outsourcing more of our technology work, maintaining a smaller in-house team to work directly with outsourcing partners in Kenya and overseas.” he noted.He went on to say that this was the right thing for the company’s long-term sustainability, “This means building a sustainable, profitable company that offers impact for customers and returns for investors.”On whether the company had outsourced the IT services to a company that is linked to the new CTO, this is what he said.“In mid-2017 our Acting CTO was seconded to us from one of our outsourcing partners, when our previous CTO left the company. Our board approved this and the individual is strictly recused on procurement decisions with companies where could be a potential conflict of interest.”The company was started by Nick Hughes, an Englishman, and his Canadian co-founder, Jesse Moore. Hughes is a former executive at Vodafone, while Moore was working for the GSMA Development Fund, a mobile telecommunications industry group, where he was in charge of identifying opportunities to make mobile services available to people in developing countries. M-kopa is one of the best-funded startups in Africa having raised more than $152 Million since inception in 2011. However, a big chunk of this financing is in form of debt.

Regards,
Alex
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