Definitely, talent scarcity isn’t a foreign discussion in the tech ecosystem. Software development, engineering and products have been the reigning niches. With this in mind, digital schools like Andela, Decagon, AltSchool and other tech talent hunters have made these niches their focus.
As Africa’s tech ecosystem surely grows, more attention is given to certain niches that weren’t so popular. These attention have clearly exposed new findings as to the root cause of talent scarcity.
Previously, capital investment was a barrier to innovative products and services within these niches. However, with capital pouring into Africa’s tech ecosystem, the talent gap is now obvious.
You’re Probably Wondering What alGROWithm Is
There are companies that specialise in Business-as-a-Service (Baas), Software-as-a-Service (Saas), and even Fintech-as-a-Service (FaaS). Have you ever heard of Growth-as-a-service (GaaS)?
This is what alGROWithm intends to offer. It seeks to become the first and best growth agency in Africa
The Nigerian-based growth agency, alGROWithm is building Africa’s first growth talent accelerator. The Growth Talent Accelerator Programme (GTAP) is a two-phase training programme in partnership with Digital Africa’s Talent 4 Startups Initiative.
This will undoubtedly help develop world-class growth engineers across the continent. As a result, a surge in startup growth in Africa remains in sight.
A Little Backstory On alGROWithm
algGROWithm was founded by Bili Sule in 2018. The agency uses growth engineering to design and implement sustainable growth strategies for African startups and SMEs. Furthermore, the company’s services spans across marketing, growth modelling, digital advertising and even branding.
The agency has served over 50 startups in the ecosystem including top names like Binance. With Binance, it led a market entry campaign into Nigeria. It has also worked with other companies like Spleet, Chaka and OkHi.
alGROWithm also offers short 6-hour growth courses called Growth Engineering Training (GET) which have been completed by over 300 people. GET, however, only offers its trainees a surface overview of growth engineering tactics.
According to Sule, who is founder and Chief Growth Officer (CGO) “While GET challenges the mindset, we wanted to design something that helps trainees think of growth in a consistent and sustainable way for businesses. And that’s how we came up with GTAP.”
Diving Into GTAP
In 2021, Digital Africa partnered with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. Subsequently, it also partnered with the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). It has since launched the Talent 4 Startups Initiative to provide 250 scholarships. These were aimed at supporting digital talent growth across 12 African countries.
More importantly, 40 of these scholarships will go towards alGROWithm’s Growth Talent Accelerator Programme. These programmes will be held in Nigeria and Ghana over the course of the year.
The programme will be divided into 2 cohorts. While the first, via a 6-month course will focus on upskilling employees of tech startups into growth engineers. Employees with growth experience are the most sought after. The second cohort will see freelancers and unemployed youths becoming growth experts over a 4-month period.
According to Bili Sule, there’s need for training and upskilling existing talent to levels of expertise. They can deliver in line with employers’ expectations.
Also, the ecosystem still needs a steady supply of growth talent to make it easier for founders to find and hire the people they need.
