By Mary Onyia
Amidst worsening economic woes in Nigeria, the country seems to be facing a mass exodus of multinational companies as Microsoft joins the list of a plethora of several foreign operators that have exited the business terrain of Africa’s largest economy.
Reports say that Microsoft may be planning to shut down its African Development Centre (ADC) located in Ikoyi, Lagos, a development that will affect over 500 jobs that are directly linked to the innovation centre.
It is, however, not clear why Microsoft chose to shut down its innovation centre in Lagos, a building that also houses the Microsoft Garage, where local solutions are developed and nurtured to maturity. But sources say, it may not be unrelated to the harsh economic realties prevalent in Nigeria.
Microsoft reportedly informed the staff on Monday of its decision to close down the $100million innovation centre it set up in 2019 with the intent of building a technology hub in Africa to address not only African challenges but global ones as well.
Microsoft established the African Development Centres in Nigeria and Kenya, but decided to shut down that of Nigeria, leaving Kenya’s centre to still operate in Kenya.
Recall that in 2023 alone, companies like GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria, Equinor, Sanofi, Bolt Food and Procter & Gamble halted their operations in Nigeria. This is not excluding many more local firms that had to close shop owing to very harsh business terrain.