GIFT NDOLWANE
JOHANNESBURG – SAP Africa, the software company, has officially opened its new office in Morocco as part of its expansion into the continent.
The opening of the facility in Casablanca coincided with the 2016 SAP Africa Francophone Partner Forum event where approximately 100 SAP partners attended.
The news follows the announcement in December 2015 of the opening of an SAP office in Luanda, Angola.
Gilles Leprêtre heads the office as Managing Director for Francophone Africa.
Brett Parker, Managing Director of SAP Africa, says the Morocco office opening comes at a time when they are actively expanding their reach across the region and bolstering their collaborative partnerships with like-minded businesses, partners and with government.
“This important stepping stone will allow SAP to more effectively execute on our vision and mission as well as support the French-speaking African ICT transformation agenda. SAP is incredibly optimistic about prospects in the region and looks forward to expanding its presence in the years to come,” says Parker.
The official opening of the new office in Morocco comes on the heels of the successful skills development and job creation programme SAP Africa conducted in 2015.
SAP Skills for Africa is SAP Africa’s skills development and job creation initiative aimed at developing ICT and business skills in strategic locations.
As further validation of SAP’s commitment to spread digital literacy across Africa, SAP and partners launched Africa Code Week in 2015 across 17 African countries, including seven in French-speaking Africa.
The initiative that will be taking place again this year aims to teach software coding skills free of charge to Africa’s youth who represent the youngest population and fastest growing digital consumer market on the planet.
Close to 88 000 children were trained across the continent last year, far exceeding the target of 20 000 and 35 000 of them were from Morocco which was also the leading participating country.
As a ramp-up to this year’s Africa Code Week, a team of SAP Master Instructors led several Train-The-Trainers sessions on the Scratch (Level 2) programme for 600 computer science teachers from the Ministry of National Educational and Vocational Training in Morocco in early April.
The Ministry’s collaboration and similar commitment towards spreading digital literacy across the country is key to the viral success of Africa Code Week in Morocco and crucial to the planned engagement of tens of thousands more young people this year from October 15-23.
Minister of Education and Vocational Training, Rachid Benmokhtar, says the timing of SAP’s most recent investment to the country and the region is opportune and highlights the prevailing positive investment climate.
“The Moroccan government clearly sees the value of ICT as a strategic enabler to promote innovation and ultimately drive job creation. The government also has a long-standing commitment to promoting innovative educational and technology-driven programs, like SAP Skills for Africa and Africa Code Week,” says Benmokhtar.
– CAJ News
