Kate Woska, VP, Africa/Middle East & Impact Partnerships at Andela.
Kate Woska, VP, Africa/Middle East & Impact Partnerships at Andela, says Africa needs to upskill its artificial intelligence (AI) talent to enable technology ventures, telecom operators and IT firms to fully utilise the opportunities presented by the rapidly evolving technology.
Speaking to ITWeb Africa in an interview this week, Woska said that, as the world competes for AI talent, African companies and governments must move quickly to upskill software engineers and prepare the next generation of AI professionals.
With more African countries launching AI strategies and companies increasingly adopting AI capabilities and solutions, the focus has shifted towards preparing technology talent for the opportunity.
According to Woska, Africa must build on its existing strengths while addressing the skills required for the next wave of AI innovation.
Andela, founded in Nigeria in 2014, is a technology talent company that connects organisations with skilled technology professionals.
“Part of the answer to Africa’s challenges with AI talent is upskilling the engineers who are already working, and doing it fast. The other part is building a new generation of AI-native talent from scratch,” said Woska.
Although Africa has long grappled with the effects of brain drain, BCG’s 2025 AI at Work report found that 55% of respondents in Africa reported having already upskilled in AI — the highest proportion among the regions surveyed.
Woska believes Africa has developed a strong culture of self-directed learning, with technology professionals demonstrating a willingness to adopt new tools and skills as they emerge.
“The African continent has reskilled itself through every major technology wave, and AI is no exception,” she said.
However, Woska said that while Africa’s technology workforce has largely reskilled itself, matching the right calibre of talent to AI projects remains a challenge.
She attributed this largely to intense global competition for experienced AI professionals.
At the same time, Woska noted that some of Africa’s leading technology talent who left the continent to pursue international careers are now helping to establish new technology ventures back home.
Régis Bamba, co-founder of Ivorian fintech Djamo, agreed, saying his company has been able to tap into technology talent previously employed by international technology companies.
Apart from AI, Woska said software development will remain critical if Africa is to benefit fully from advances in big data, data mining and deep technology.
However, she said access to capital continues to constrain the continent’s technology ecosystem.
“If you look at where new companies are being built across the continent, the overwhelming majority are software businesses. That isn’t an accident. Capital-intensive deep-tech and hardware need patient capital, and there isn’t enough of it here yet,” said Woska.
Another obstacle to Africa fully capitalising on its increasingly AI-skilled workforce is limited access to the computing power needed to develop and deploy advanced AI systems.
Africa holds less than 2% of the world’s data centre capacity, strengthening the case for greater investment in digital infrastructure, compute re
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