German and Kenyan businesses explore collaboration in IT outsourcing and BPO

Two speakers – Peter Ganten, CEO of Univention, and Stefanie Simon, Founder and CEO of Dartex – shared insights based on their experiences engaging with Kenya’s fast-evolving IT and BPO landscape and with Germany’s IT sector respectively.

Open-source collaboration and lessons from Nairobi

Peter Ganten, whose company Univention develops open-source software for identity and access management, recently travelled to Nairobi with a German business delegation. The group met with seven local companies, universities and members of Kenya’s open-source community, as well as representatives from the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy (MICDE).

Reflecting on the trip, Ganten highlighted three key lessons:

• Partnerships over new entities: Collaborating with existing local partners is often more effective than setting up entirely new operations.
• Trust in talent: Many Kenyan developers were deemed entry-level, thus a need arose to align talent development expectations and invest in long-term relationships.
• Navigating legal frameworks: Differences between German labor law and Kenyan hiring practices present challenges that currently require creative solutions – but these could be potentially resolved through long-term political cooperation between the two countries.

Ganten also shared that the Open Source Business Alliance (OSBA), which he co-founded, plans to continue deepening engagement with Kenya. OSBA will present these insights at OSBA Connect in Berlin on 13 November 2025, and a follow-up business delegation visit to Nairobi is already scheduled for March 2026.

Strengthening intercultural understanding

Drawing from her experience advising European businesses in Africa, Stefanie Simon emphasised the importance of cultural understanding in outsourcing partnerships. Through her firm, Dartex, she supports companies in Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda and Cameroon, helping them navigate intercultural workplace issues such as feedback practices and communication styles.

Simon encouraged African IT and BPO providers to:

• Tailor their offerings to European expectations, particularly around new technologies and data protection.
• Leverage cultural compatibility with Europe, offering clear and concrete business proposals backed by success stories.
• Prepare business visits proactively by gathering questions from potential German partners and distributing them in advance to ensure meaningful engagement.

Looking ahead

The next session in the Kenyan-German BPO/ITO exchange series will take place on 28 January 2026.

This continuous exchange underscores the shared ambition of Kenya and Germany to expand cooperation in digital services, create sustainable jobs, and strengthen cross-border collaboration in IT outsourcing.