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IBM's second Africa innovation centre

18 September 2009

Multinational IT giant IBM has opened an Africa Innovation Centre in Cape Town to foster the development of information technology and business skills, and to expand its customers and business partners in the region.

The centre, which joins a growing worldwide network of 47 centres, will help local businesses develop and deploy new technologies that support key digital infrastructure opportunities in government, banking, insurance, retail, and travel and transportation industries.

Based in Century City to the north of Cape Town, the centre will provide local customers, business partners, start-up companies, independent software vendors, IT professionals and the academic community with access to training workshops, consulting services, a broad technical infrastructure, and hands-on assistance to help solve business challenges and bring new technologies to market.

Sub-Saharan expansion

The centre supports IBM's efforts to help grow the burgeoning local IT market, and is a key addition to its two-year market expansion investment in sub-Saharan Africa.

As the second IBM Africa Innovation Centre established in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Cape Town centre will help connect businesses and academics with the Johannesburg centre, which opened last year, and additional local IBM initiatives.

The new centre will support skills development by demonstrating and providing training and access to open standards-based and emerging technologies such as cloud computing, Web 2.0, service-oriented architecture and energy-efficient IT solutions.

"Cape Town possesses a strong innovative spirit, and with access to the appropriate skills and resources, local businesses and academics can collaborate to build a vibrant technical community," IBM sub-Saharan Africa GM Oliver Fortuin said in a statement this week.

"The new Africa Innovation Centre demonstrates IBM's commitment to help build the IT ecosystem to provide the necessary tools for developing 21st century skills and driving economic growth in the region."

SAinfo reporter