Andela Closes All Offices in Africa

Software Company Andela is reportedly closing all its offices on the continent and selling its equipment to select staff. This news comes a month after the company fired 135 employees due to the pandemic. The company took a hit from COVID-19, lowering its customer base and therefore slowing growth.

Andela will only maintain one office in the world, which will act as a sales office. This move will allow the company to operate remotely, as it announced a few weeks ago.

According to an ex-employee who talked to Afritech, the company is not exiting any country. However, going remote will allow Andela to operate a “United Office”, transcending limits to talent tied to location. Going remote will also give the software company a more regional/global centric appeal, as opposed to focusing on specific countries.

“The idea is not to limit talent by location but on a motto of Talent is evenly distributed. So now they are focused on Africa as a whole compared to a few countries. They have modified their business model from what it was as learning then doing workplace to now a market place for engineering talent,” Afritech quoted the source.

Andela as a remote company

Last month, Andela CEO Jeremy Johnson revealed the intention to move fully remote. In a blog, Jeremy explained that the move was part of reorganizing the company. In the long term, the company looks to create a global network of engineers that supports long-term and trust-based relationships between teams.

In 2020, the same office approach that helped us create opportunities for brilliant minds when we first started now restricts opportunities for talented engineers who can’t (or choose not to) relocate. As such, requiring offices is now part of the problem we are working to solve.

Jeremy Johnson