from MARIA MACHARIA in Nairobi, Kenya
Kenya Bureau
NAIROBI, (CAJ News) – THE artificial intelligence (AI) company, Sama, is to develop an AI curriculum tailored for vocational training institutes in Kenya.
It has collaborated with the western Homa Bay county (province) for the programme rollout.
Vocational training institutes in Homa Bay will serve as the launch pad for this initiative as Sama also seeks to expand its delivery centres across the country.
As part of the arrangement, students from these institutes will contribute to the value chain of Sama’s delivery centres in the East African nation.
The partnership will initially focus on developing an AI curriculum for Homa Bay’s vocational institutes and establishing an AI value chain delivery centre in Homa Bay with a potential to employ about 350 youth at the beginning.
Annepeace Alwala, Sama Vice President of Global Delivery, welcomed the county’s commitment to supporting Sama as it looked to scale its operations outside the traditional investment hub in the capital Nairobi, offering competitive incentives for growth.
“We are excited about the potential possibilities of the partnership with Homa Bay to create opportunities within the AI value chain,” she said.
Alwala noted Sama had been operational in Kenya for the past 15 years, consistently creating quality formal jobs for Kenyans.
The company provides AI value chain solutions for sectors such as self-driving cars, virtual reality gaming, fashion segmentation and agricultural solutions for crop disease protection.
Also speaking during the tour of Sama’s Nairobi delivery centre, Homa Bay Governor, Gladys Wanga, emphasized that Kenya has a large pool of talented youth capable of contributing to global AI development, similar to the success seen in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector in India and Poland.
She revealed the county was at the tail end of setting up a well-developed special economic zone equipped with essential infrastructure, which would be ideal for the BPO sector players, including those in the AI field.
“Homa Bay is an ideal investment destination for the BPO sector,” Wanga said.
According to Sama, the global BPO market is valued at over US$262 billion, with African countries emerging as the next growth frontiers.
The United States-headquartered Sama is a training-data company, focusing on annotating data for AI algorithms.
– CAJ News