AWS Launches Development Centre In Nairobi

Amazon Web Services (AWS), on Wednesday, opened a development centre in Nairobi, Kenya, to bolster its global operations.

The Centre was inaugurated by Kenya’s President, William Ruto, Megan Whitman, the US Ambassador to Kenya, Amazon officials, and other government representatives.

The Amazon Development Center (ADC) is a hub for essential operations, including software development, support services, retail functions, and more. It acts as the company’s foundation, generating the primary revenue stream.

ADCs are spread worldwide. The specific functions and roles of an ADC can vary depending on its location and purpose.  According to AWS, the facility in Nairobi will host research and development teams building new solutions for customers and partners around the world.

The Development Centre is expected to create new, highly skilled jobs in telecommunications, software development, cloud support, and software engineering, and deliver solutions for AWS customers and partners around the world.

The initial batch of engineers working at the Center were previously based in Cape Town, South Africa where the company operates a similar facility.

In recent years, AWS has joined other global companies that have set up bases in Kenya to increase their footprint in Africa.

In April 2023, AWS and the Information Communication Technology (ICT) Authority announced plans to upskill 10,000 students in Kenya using AWS Academy. The Academy provides higher education institutions with free, ready-to-teach cloud computing curricula that prepare students to pursue industry-recognized AWS Certifications and in-demand jobs.

In April 2022, the company announced plans to set up AWS Local Zones cloud infrastructure in Nairobi to enable its customers to deploy applications that require single-digit millisecond latency to end users or on-premises data centres.

In August 2022, AWS launched AWS Outposts in Kenya. Outposts is a family of fully managed solutions delivering AWS infrastructure and services to virtually any on-premises or edge location for a truly consistent hybrid experience.