I completely agree with you that the skew to the balance should be in growing local talent rather than shipping in global talent. Sadly, a lot of the local talent has then disappeared into the global (mostly Western) space. However the trend is towards the return of the globally-aware-local-talent.

“Voluntourism” is economic migration. Its just that its not obvious since this is happening in reverse of the normal trend. And, yes, being mzungu does help to get into the foreign NGOs and “{{insert_your_choice_field}}4D” donor space. This does create tension since salaries to this group are rarely based on skill or output. But its not the US/EU immigrant’s fault. Its our fault, the Africans, by creating opportunities for the do-gooders.

China, India, the EU and the US are “territories” that are only comparable to Africa as a whole. The first 2 compare with Africa on the scale of population and a potential market. The last 2 compare on the economic advantage that Africa’s integration into a single bloc would bring. Only then would the economic “bullying” stop.

Africa is divided into small inefficient countries that cannot benefit from the “Economies of Scale”. We, the Africans compete with each other in offering resources and markets to the large “territories” above. Nothing will change until we remove the borders in Africa allowing free movement of labour, trade and money.

Imagine for a moment, the East African countries merged and the ICT talent was in one place, say Arusha with infrastructure, connections and access better than in Nairobi. Everything would be different. The talent pool would be deeper, opportunities greater and the market larger. Everyone wants this, no?

But for now, let’s learn what Erik is talking about here. Commitment, generosity and audacity.

Commitment – Erik can live and work anywhere in the world. He chose to do it in Kenya. How many of us Kenyans are committed to Kenya (Africa as a whole) and to world beating standards whilst we (and our politicians) whine about “foreigners” taking our jobs?

Generosity – Erik has great ideas but he knows he can’t do it alone. So he opens them up for those who are committed to doing a great job of whatever they lay their hands on. Right now its the BRCK.

Audacity – We can produce world-class solutions right here. But it will take world class skills and attitude, not mediocrity and small-mindedness, whether one is a Kenyan or expat.

Couple of comments though – in my experience, finding great developers and designers and tech talent is a global problem experienced by small and big companies everywhere, and its getting globally more difficult and much, much more competitive.

Secondly, in Kenya, the industry is young and by definition, no talent here has already built global-scale tech companies. So anyone you meet, who tells you they have 5-10 years Kenyan experience of building at scale is probably not someone you should hire!

So all of us need to try be creative and get the balance right between growing local capacity (which MUST be our local priority for our businesses, the ecosystem, Kenyans and the country’s long term competitiveness) versus getting the top talent we need now from the global pool to drive our Kenyan businesses.

My sense is that some businesses bring in global talent for the second without having a genuine commitment to the first. And that is wrong.

Totally agree with your comments that some arms of the political arena can do more to tone down the “foreigners are stealing our jobs” rhetoric where for the most part a small number of foreigners are helping Kenyans to build very important future industries. And the government, which has “digital” as one of its top 3 core policies in the Jubilee Manifesto, can do more to position and directly support Kenya’s tech ecosystem competitively in the talent space with real, firm, clear headed decisions around skill-gaps, tax competitiveness, the investment and infrastructural environment.

On a related note, is the subject of “voluntourism” from all levels of tech and NGO people who come for an African experience short term – often with no visa – some with low experience but good academic credentials, others with neither but with Western work-practice capability – some leaving skills behind, others not so much – not sure what people think of this scene which I think is pretty real in Kenya and I think is the source of a lot of the negative feelings from Kenyan jobseekers, perhaps more so in the NGO sector than tech, but tech is not immune.

With respect to work attitude, time management, etc.: An Indian manager, with HP India experience later working for an IT company in Accra, commented about the difference she perceived between working in the two places. She said in India people knew there was a line of people waiting to take their place if they didn’t perform. She didn’t see that in Accra. Probably there were many factors in that observation such as HP vs. small startup, salary level compared to the local norm. Maybe a factor is also the size of the workforce pool: Africa is many countries, and immigration policies don’t allow free movement of people (similar to H1B issues in the US). India is very large, and smart young people from all over India can move to the IT centers.

Adam — the trouble with raising salaries is that you might price yourself above what local market would pay for the services you can deliver, or in the case of world products and services, above the competition in other countries. This is happening to the US in a big way, as India & China are very hungry with lots of smart people. I’m in India seeing some of that — lots and lots of very smart, very hard working people. So Kenya has to compete with the world. They certainly can do that, if they look at the world as both their market and competition.

Also, it’s not just tech. I often hear this same complaint “no talent…” from foreign entrepreneurs that are leaving in a bubble about all kinds of positions.

Having lived 5 years in the UN expat bubble, I recognize that learning to also branch-out and mix your team with talent from a variety of backgrounds (e.g. age, class, gender and race) is sadly still far too rare in Kenya.