Orange Opens Digital Center in Addis Ababa
ADDIS ABABA – France-based Telecom operator, Orange, partnered with the Germany to open its digital center in Addis Ababa in a bid to boost the employability of young people in digital technology.
The center is the third Orange Digital Center in Africa and the Middle East following the launch of two other Orange center in Tunisia and Senegal.
Occupying a space of 500m2, it is the first center in East Africa that will operate as a strategic network, allowing experiences and expertise to be shared between countries.
It will also offer a simple and inclusive approach to strengthen the employability of young people, to encourage innovative entrepreneurship and to promote the local digital ecosystem.
The purpose of Center, according to the company, is to bring together several strategic programs under the same roof: a coding school, a ‘FabLab Solidaire’, a startup accelerator ‘Orange Fab’ and Orange Ventures Africa, the Group’s investment fund.
“I am very proud to launch with all our partners the third Orange Digital Center in Addis Ababa, which will be part of a network of 32 Orange Digital Centers based across” Africa and Europe, said Alioune Ndiaye, CEO of Orange Middle East & Africa.
“With the support of GIZ, Orange supports East Africa’s digital ecosystem by providing young Ethiopians with all its technological know-how to create more job opportunities,” Ndiaye added.
Orange and GIZ, on behalf of Germany’s ministry of Economic Cooperation, are working together in an initiative on Training and Job Creation.
The know-how of Orange in training and supporting young people in the field of digital skills and innovation will be complemented by GIZ’s extensive experience and local expertise in addressing the challenges inherent in the employability and entrepreneurship of young Ethiopians, the company said.
Lelise Neme, head of the Ethiopian Investment Commission, has welcomed their initiative and hope the center would give a boost to develop young Ethiopians technological skill.
“Ethiopia has a young, dynamic and trainable workforce, as well as supportive policies to enable the launching of a project as Orange Digital Center,” the commissioner said.
“We therefore welcomed this initiative with great enthusiasm and have been supporting it since day one,” she said. “Young Ethiopians will have the opportunity to develop world-class technological skills here”.
