- SAP office to open in Morocco to actively increase and support the activity in Francophone Africa
- Up-skilling next generation of IT leaders and professionals by training up to 1000 consultants by 2020 in close collaboration with local governments and universities in Morocco
CASABLANCA — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) the world leader in enterprise software and software-related services presented today an ambitious development plan for Africa, and a targeted strategy for French-speaking countries with, at the forefront, Morocco. With more than 1,300 customers across the continent, SAP is already enabling African businesses and governments of all sizes to grow, scale and globalise, as well as make the transition to a networked, technology-driven innovative economy. As part of this commitment, SAP Africa is now taking responsibility for SAP operations across 51 African countries, including Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Senegal.
The SAP Africa growth plan is built on the following pillars:
- Accelerating industry growth in energy and natural resources, utilities, public sector, financial services and telecommunications in core countries across the continent, including Morocco.
- Promoting innovation on the continent by accelerating the roll-out of core innovative SAP technology solutions that can help address the enormous resource challenges Africa is facing. Africa is in a unique position to absorb the latest technology innovations, including mobile, cloud and the flagship in-memory platform SAP HANA, as many businesses are not burdened with legacy systems already in place.
- Enhancing small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) growth, which contributes 40 percent to Africa’s GDP.
- Building foundational growth and skill development with the launch of additional Skills for Africa Scholarship Programme sessions to continue to foster an open business ecosystem of SAP-qualified consultants to execute on various projects.
“Maghreb is an enormous opportunity among Fast Growing markets and accounts for 85% of the GDP for Francophone Africa”, said Franck Cohen, President, SAP Europe, Middle East and Africa. “Morocco is a key market for SAP in terms of growth rate expectations and IT capabilities or maturity, and offers the best operating hub for Maghreb and potentially for the whole of Francophone Africa” he added.
The Skills for Africa Scholarship Programme will launch in Morocco in 2015 and aim to produce approximately 1000 skilled IT professionals in Morocco by 2020. Discussions with Moroccan government agencies, SAP partners and universities are currently in progress to launch the first training classes in the first quarter of next year, with similar discussions underway in Tunisia and Senegal.
“SAP has more than 20 years of experience successfully operating on the continent,” said Cohen. “We are leveraging our established presence and valued ecosystem relationships to immediately commence execution of this plan. We believe our plan will not only dramatically strengthen Africa’s ICT landscape, but also its ability to compete on a global scale.”
African Market Leader
SAP is already the clear technology market leader in South Africa and the organization is seeing further strong market traction in the focus countries. Currently, there are approximately 700 SAP employees in Africa. Details of the plan announced today include the short-term recruitment of up to 250 employees through 2015, the opening of an office in Angola and Morocco in 2015 and expanding the company’s partner ecosystem and the SAP University Alliances program in Africa.
For more information, visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews and @SAPAfrica.
About SAP
As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 261,000 customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.
Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP’s future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including SAP’s most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.
2014 SAP SE. All rights reserved.
SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.epx#trademark for additional trademark information and notices.
Note to editors:
To preview and download broadcast-standard stock footage and press photos digitally, please visit www.sap.com/photos. On this platform, you can find high resolution material for your media channels. To view video stories on diverse topics, visit www.sap-tv.com. From this site, you can embed videos into your own Web pages, share video via email links, and subscribe to RSS feeds from SAP TV.
For customers interested in learning more about SAP products:
Global Customer Center: +49 180 534-34-24
United States Only: 1 (800) 872-1SAP (1-800-872-1727)
SAP Africa (within SA): 0800 981334
SAP Africa (outside SA): +27 11 235 6045
For more information, press only:
Ansophie Strydom, SAP Africa, +27 (21) 528 1700, a.strydom@sap.com, CAT
SAP News Center press room; press@sap.com
