O

utside a commu-

nity centre just

south of Nairobi,

groups of young

Kenyans gather

around speakers blasting Bongo

musicastheychatandchecktheir

phones. About 120 unemployed

twenty-somethings,manyofthem

universitygraduates,arewaitingto

beginatrainingsessionsponsored

by Google. “We’re teaching them

how to use Google products and

howtobuildtheironlinepresence,”

says Ted Odera, 25, a digital skills

Google knows the power of round numbers: as the American tech

pioneer marks 10 years in Africa it also hit 1 million participants in its

Digital Skills for Africa programme.The Africa Reportexamines why

training is a key strategy for reeling in new continental internauts

ByMarkAndersonin Kajiado and Johannesburg

The next

billion

trainer.“Someofthestudentswant

tobuildabrand,otherswanttoget

a job,” he says. Odera estimates

that he has trained about 8,000

students in the past year.

John Mwangi, 24, an unem-

ployed graduate from Kiserian,

a town 30km from Nairobi, says

he received a text message urging

him to go to the training because

he could earn up to $200 a day

doing online jobs. “In Kenya, the

information and communication

technology (ICT) sector is grow-

ing,” he says. “I want to get a job.”

Google’s parent company

Alphabet,whichrakedin$90.3bn

in revenue last year, sponsored

this training session as part of its

strategy to expand the company’s

presence on the continent. It has

set an ambitious target to attract

one billion new internet users

by 2020, and the race is on to

hook new internauts on Google’s

services, which include email,

messaging and web searches.

Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the

regionsmostripeforattractingnew

users. Google estimates ANTOINE MOREAU DUSAULT FOR TAR

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