Africa is quickly accommodating the tech industry as tech hubs have increased in the continent. Even global tech giants have expanded into Africa and set up their development centres. This has led to an increase in local software engineering talent.
Microsoft is one example that has invested more than $100 million to open its first development centres in Africa. Microsoft’s development centers employed 100 full-time African developers and the numbers of developers may grow to 500 by 2023.
Demand for developers is yet to slow down. Github’s Octoverse report has stated African developers have increased by 40%. The highest growth compared to other continents. Morocco reported the highest growth in Africa. Kenya came in second, ahead of Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa.
The increase of developers across Africa appeared appealing to Andela, a developer training and outsourcing company. It created a business model based on this factor but it was later proven unsustainable due to the increased growth of other developer training and outsourcing companies that cater to US companies.
Earlier in September this year, Andela let go of over 250 junior developers in Lagos and Uganda as they shifted their business model and put more focus on their senior developers.
Andela’s move has raised a lot of concerns on whether the African tech sector is able to fully absorb African developers. African developers are left with options such as working remotely or moving to European to work for foreign companies.
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