/PRNewswire/ - IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced the opening of a new branch office in Dakar, Senegal, as part of the company's geographic expansion initiative to strategically increase its presence in key growth markets.

The new subsidiary will enable IBM to deliver high-value solutions and services to meet the growing needs of clients in Senegal and West Africa, where the company is working closely with a number of business partners. IBM already serves a number of key clients in West Africa, spanning sectors including telecommunications, oil & gas, finance and government. The expanded presence in Senegal will allow the company to increase its level of service, and deliver more complex and high-value solutions such as cloud computing and business analytics.

For example, the Customs Directorate of Senegal's Ministry of Finance recently chose IBM to help modernize Senegal's import and export processes. Together with business partner CFAO Technologies, IBM is helping the Ministry put its import and export processes for 30 border crossings on-line, while also digitizing its payroll and Human Resources processes. In another West African agreement with CFAO Technologies, IBM has provided a mainframe system to the Cameroon Ministry of Finance to help modernize the Ministry's payroll processes. In Nigeria, IBM is also working with several West African banks to help increase efficiencies and with Bharti airtel across 16 African countries to help transform its telecommunications operations.

"Today's expansion into Senegal demonstrates IBM's commitment to the African market as we work to build out high-value solutions for our clients and partners across the continent," said Bruno Di Leo, General Manager, IBM Growth Markets. "Dakar will become one of more than 230 IBM branch offices across 54 growth market countries. Our success in Africa is a pivotal part of our overall growth markets strategy. Expanding into Senegal offers IBM a significant opportunity for doing business with suitable market conditions, established IT infrastructure, telecommunications and transportation."

The Dakar office is part of IBM's West Africa operations and will complement IBM's other West African branch offices in Accra, Ghana and Lagos, Nigeria, which acts as a hub for business in the region. IBM has supplied products and solutions to Senegal since the 1940's.

With offices in more than 20 African countries including South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and Mauritius, IBM is planning on significantly increasing its footprint on the continent. A critical component of that effort is to help cultivate local technology talent. To do that, IBM has begun partnering with African universities. For example, IBM is working with Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar and Thies University in Thies as part of a global academic program to help teach students the information technology skills they need to be competitive in the workplace. Faculty at both institutions has been trained on a range of software products to help build skills in these areas as the courses are incorporated into the university curricula.

The new office in Dakar was inaugurated at a ceremony on Monday

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