Google’s plan to open a Product Development Center in Kenya proves that Kenya is the ideal innovation destination on the continent. This is also backed up by other recent launches by different giant corporations.

Just recently, I witnessed the launch of Microsoft ADC Center in Nairobi. The world class facility houses the engineering, design, research, and innovation teams, as well as the Microsoft Garage, an incubation hub launched as part of the ongoing efforts to scale tech innovation in the continent.

Later on, during the Connected Summit, Amazon announced its plan to launch an AWS Local Zone in Kenya in order to bring cloud infrastructure to more locations in the country.

Visa also announced that together with other partners, it had set up its first innovation studio in Africa, situated in Nairobi Kenya, to co-create payment and commerce solutions.

And here comes Google who plans to set up shop in Nairobi with their product development center aimed at building transformative products and services for the African market and the world.

Google had announced in October last year about its plan to invest $1 billion over the next five years.

The tech giant continues to make strides on the continent following the launch of an AI and research center in Ghana in 2019.

This is great news for the local talent as Google plans to hire over 100 tech talent including software engineers, researchers and designers over the next two years to help solve difficult and technical challenges faced by people in Africa and the world at large.

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