Andela has announced the appointment of Clément Uwajeneza as Country Director for Rwanda. Clement joins Andela with an illustrious career in the ICT sector in Rwanda that includes over a decade of experience establishing and leading organizations that have built digital products reaching over one million Rwandans monthly.
Clément has actively participated in Rwanda’s digital development agenda through his involvement in initiatives that advance the ICT ecosystem and national ICT policies.
As the Country Director of Andela’s first pan-African hub, Clément will be providing strategic leadership and direction to the Kigali office and will be responsible for its programmatic and operational management.
“Clément joins Andela with a strong track record as a business leader and contributor to Rwanda’s ICT sector, as well as an ability to effectively engage a range of stakeholders. This will be essential in driving Andela’s growth in the region. We are very excited to have Clément lead our first pan-African hub,” Seni Sulyman, Andela’s Vice President of Global Operations said
In July 2018, Andela announced its expansion into Kigali as its fourth African market following Lagos, Nairobi and Kampala. A model of technological excellence on the African continent, Kigali was chosen as a strategic location for Andela’s first pan-African hub due to its strong existing infrastructure and ease of access for developers across the continent.
In August, Andela opened its first intake of applications for aspiring developers in Rwanda and other African countries with the aim of launching its facility by January 2019. In addition, it recently launched the Andela Learning Community (ALC), a network of tech enthusiasts across Africa dedicated to learning how to use technology to solve humanity’s problems, which has built a community of thousands of learners across the continent since its launch four years ago. The ALC facilitates learning through the aid of guided mentorship from learning community ambassadors.
The goal is to provide an ever-growing population of aspiring technologists with the resources and environments they need to become world-class problem solvers. The Andela Learning Community in Rwanda will empower learners with technical leadership skills in software development through a three month learning period starting on October 9, 2018.
“We have been aiming at creating employment for highly skilled technology practitioners within the Rwanda tech-ecosystem and Andela has figured out how to do this fast and at scale,” Clément said.
‘’Our ambition for Rwanda is to develop and employ more than 500 software developers within the next five years. The success of Andela pan-African Hub in Rwanda will considerably contribute to at least 3 key areas of Rwanda’s economic transformation plan towards a knowledge-based economy: exporting knowledge through BPO; becoming an African technology hub, and advancing technology entrepreneurship. It is a great honour and challenge for me to joining and advancing Andela’s mission in Rwanda.”
