84% of Kenyan Firms Call Their Upskilling Ineffective: New Report

Eighty-four percent of Kenyan executives say their current upskilling approaches are not very effective. That figure comes from the Kenya Corporate Technology Capability Report 2026, published by Moringa School, and it sits at the centre of a growing argument about whether Kenya's much-discussed skills gap is really a gap in skills at all.

The report's headline numbers describe ambition without conversion. Some 72 percent of executives surveyed rate digital transformation as a top strategic priority. Yet 73 percent describe their organisations as Developing or Early Stage in maturity. Only 16 percent are very satisfied with their training programmes. Takeaway: companies are paying for skilling they themselves say doesn't work.

Is Kenya short of talent? The CEO's answer is no

Nikki Germany, who has led Moringa School for two and a half years, rejects the obvious reading that Africa lacks talent. "It's definitely not lack of talent," she says. "We have incredible talent here in Kenya and across the continent."

Germany came to the role to "marry both of those passions" — a lifelong focus on upskilling and a career in and around technology companies. Moringa built its reputation on entry-level training in software development, data science and cybersecurity. It now also runs open courses and bespoke corporate training, with demand strongest in data and, more recently, artificial intelligence.

What separates effective programmes from ineffective ones, according to the survey's respondents, is fit. Organisations rating their upskilling as effective cite practical, hands-on learning over theory, and training tailored to their business. Customisation is the top requirement companies place on training partners, named by 66 percent of executives.

What's wrong with the tools?

Germany says 77 percent of surveyed organisations rely on online learning platforms — the most widely used method — but those platforms are built for someone else's market. "They don't understand how mobile money works. They don't understand local languages," she says. They also miss mobile-first preferences and low-data infrastructure. The report examined the return on current skilling methods rather than the tools themselves, but her point stands: delivery "doesn't take into account the local tools that really matter here."

Moringa's response shapes its teaching model. It uses instructors with industry expertise, builds or adapts curriculum locally, and has learners work on real projects rooted in local problems — agricultural supply-tracking software and flood-warning models among them. In plain words: a trainer who understands the context is what turns training spend into return.

Does Kenya need more training or better-fitting technology?

There's a risk in the findings. If the answer to ineffective upskilling is simply more upskilling, organisations could spend more training people on imported tools they already use at a fraction of their capability. Germany accepts part of that argument but not its framing. Skilling is needed, she says, "regardless of whether you're using global software or whether you're developing your own," and there is "a lot of innovation and development happening locally." She also notes the practical limits: multinationals face global constraints, and most firms end up customising open-source software rather than building from scratch.

Her question for CIOs and workforce development leaders is about return on investment, not a binary choice between training and innovation — and she suggests redirecting some budget toward methods rooted in the local context.

Where AI demand outruns infrastructure

The demand-and-capability mismatch is sharpest in AI. The report cites AI as among the hardest capabilities to build, named by 48 percent of respondents overall and 62 percent of large enterprises. A wave of young people is upskilling through institutions like Moringa to meet that demand. But Germany says the capability being built is running ahead of the resources needed to use it: the continent lacks computing power and datasets, so organisations cannot achieve everything they want with AI and data even where the talent exists. Moringa is nonetheless expanding programmes it calls "future ready" tech skills.

Germany's advice to report readers is direct: CIOs, CTOs, HR and workforce teams should "take a hard look" at their skilling programmes and choose solutions that are practical, hands-on and customised to their industry, roles and business needs. The report's implication for 2026 budgets is that Kenya's constraint is fit — of both training and tools — not the talent pool.