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Belgium-based business management software firm, Odoo, has chosen Nairobi to set up its Africa office.

According to the firm, its activities started earlier this year at its stipulated location in Chiromo lane, Westlands after Patrick Lukusa was appointed the director of Odoo KE Ltd, the new subsidiary of Odoo South Africa.

The firm has confirmed that several employees have already been recruited, trained and have already commenced duty in the new office.

Also, the company is seeking to employ more than 50 employees to fill more positions by the end of the year.

Kenya was strategically chosen as ” Odoo S.A. already had a customer base in Africa. Its business applications suite is indeed used by more than 7.5 million users worldwide, but it lacked the local presence and support.”

The firm said that its goal was to launch activities on July 1st with a headcount of 15 new colleagues including sales consultants and business analysts.

“It was very important for us to open this new office and 2022 was the year to do it. We wanted to be closer to our customers and address them locally, with local talents, which is something we cannot achieve from afar,” says Fabien Pinckaers, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Founder of Odoo S.A, in a press release.

“Digitization cannot be ignored anymore. Today a Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nairobi or Abidjan faces the same challenges as one in Sydney, Madrid, or Mexico in terms of efficiency gains. We want to equip these SMEs with a modern, fully integrated suite of business applications that can address their needs at a reasonable cost and boost their competitiveness”, said Mr Lukusa stating that SMEs are faced with new challenges which can’t be operated the same way they were operating 10 to 20 years ago.

Kenyans are set to benefit more as the firm announces new features designed specifically for them.

This includes: Kenyan Chart of accounts, new eCommerce acquirers accepting payments methods such as credit cards, debit cards, mobile money (Mpesa, Airtel, MTN, etc) throughout Africa, the Kenyan Payroll, and upcoming the KRA TIMS integration.

“Several goals have been set for Odoo KE LTD, one of which is to achieve a turnover of Sh250 million (the equivalent of 2 million EUR) in year one,” added the firm.