A 2021 report by Africa Developer Ecosystem, released by Google and Accenture, has noted that Africa now has 716,000 professional developers. This is a 3.8% rise from the 700,000 total population in 2020.
Of the 16 countries surveyed, more than 50% of these developers are concentrated in five key markets: Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa. It also indicated that the average income per developer rose, notwithstanding the contraction of the global economy.
Direct research on the software developer population size was conducted in 16 markets (Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia and Uganda) and the findings were extrapolated to the rest of African countries.
The Africa Developer Ecosystem Report 2021 is the second in a series of studies on the state of the continent’s Internet economy.
The first was published in conjunction with the International Finance Corporation (IFC). It found that Africa’s Internet economy has the potential to reach 5.2% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025, contributing nearly $180 billion to Africa’s economy. And, the projected potential contribution could reach $712 billion by 2050.
According to the report, three main factors across the tech ecosystem contributed to this positive trend, including the increasing capacity of local startups to hire over half of African developers as they raised over $4 billion in 2021 – about 2.5x times more than in 2020.
The second is the increased global demand for remote tech talent, which has been accelerated by the pandemic. This has created more remote employment opportunities for African developers.
The third is the fact that local businesses increased their use of the internet and hired developers to help them grow their businesses online.
“While Africa’s tech innovation sector is making great strides, global tech companies, educators and governments can do more to ensure that the industry becomes a strategic economic pillar. At Google, we are intent on further igniting training and support for this community by bridging the existing developer skills gap and concentrating our efforts in upskilling female developers who face pointed challenges”
says Nitin Gajria, Managing Director, Google in Africa