Kenyan IT talent and European demand: building new partnerships for digital services
Kenya
From 24 June to 1 July, the delegation travelled through Berlin, Prague, and Munich before closing out at GITEX AI Europe, verifying their offerings against the realities of German companies.
The delegation's meetings with business associations – including Bitkom and BVMW, representing Germany's digital economy and its Mittelstand respectively – surfaced a mix of high demand and apprehension.
On the one hand, legal obstacles around hiring freelancers and foreign talent came up repeatedly. Regulatory details can determine whether a sourcing relationship works in practice. On the other hand, the need for digital services is real: Companies are looking for ways to remain competitive and access skills.
High demand for highly skilled talent
The discussions with German businesses also revealed that the talent gap is not at the entry level. Junior-level IT tasks are increasingly being absorbed by AI tools, so the demand voiced repeatedly was for flexible and highly skilled talent at a more senior level.
In Munich, the delegation visited MaibornWolff, a German IT services provider with teams operating abroad, including in Rwanda. The visit offered a working example of how a European company has built and managed teams across Europe and Africa.
Alongside the meetings, MeliaCRED organised three dinners in Prague, Berlin, and Munich. They brought the delegation together with industry experts and business leaders in a lower-stakes setting to enable relationship-building.
Making the business case at GITEX AI Europe
The visit closed at GITEX AI Europe, the second edition of one of Europe's largest AI, tech and startup events. The Kenyan delegation shared a booth with delegations from several Western Balkan countries, Ghana, and Egypt. The booth was jointly built by Partners in Transformation, Invest for Jobs, and the International Digital Dialogues. It served as a collective presence of emerging tech markets.
On the tech talk stage, the delegation made its business case: quantifying time savings, cost savings, and competitive advantage from sourcing services in areas like cybersecurity.
Panel on digital sovereignty: International partnerships are key
The event also included a panel where Director Kiria of the Kenyan Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy appeared alongside Parliamentary State Secretary Jarzombek from Germany's Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation (BMDS) and Anna Sophie Herken, Managing Director of GIZ.
Their discussion touched on digital sovereignty between Europe and Africa, with Kiria arguing that countries like Kenya are not peripheral to digital supply chains but essential to them. He stressed that African countries are partners in Europe's digital ambitions. This was a fitting frame for the broader sourcing conversations: Digital sovereignty is not just about reducing external dependency, but about building international partnerships.
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