Orange has opened its second Orange Digital Centre in Africa and the Middle East. The new centre is in Dakar Senegal.
With a surface area of 2,000 m² on six floors, the Orange Digital Centre in Dakar will be the first of its kind in West Africa.
The purpose of the centre is to bring together several strategic programmes under the same roof: a coding school, a Solidarity FabLab (a digital production workshop for creating and prototyping with digital equipment), Orange Fab (a startup accelerator) and Orange Digital Ventures Africa (the Group's investment fund). All of the programmes provided are free of charge and include digital training for young people, start-up acceleration, and guidance for project owners and investment in these projects.
The first Orange Digital Centre opened in Tunisia in April. Other centres are expected to open by the end of the year in Jordan, Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire. Morocco and Egypt will follow in 2020. The aim is to deploy similar organisations in all the countries within Orange’s footprint in Africa and the Middle East as well as in Europe.
A number of ministers and senior Orange representatives attended the launch of the new centre, including Ms Ndèye Tické Ndiaye Diop, Minister for the Digital Economy and Telecommunications; Mr Dame Diop, Minister for Employment, Professional Training and Craftsmanship and Mr Alioune Ndiaye, CEO of Orange Africa and Middle East.
