Demand for African software developers reached a record high in 2021 against the backdrop of the global economic crisis and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, says a new study.

According to the Africa Developer Ecosystem Report 2021 released by Google on Tuesday, the continent’s developer ecosystem is on an all-time high.

The study carried out by Accenture across 16 sub-Saharan Africa countries, found use of the internet among small and medium businesses had increased by more than 22 percent on the continent. The need for web development services also increased alongside higher demand for remote development work. At least 38 percent of African developers work for at least one company based outside of the continent.

This is shown by the magnitude of growth in Nigeria’s professional developer population which grew by 5,000 new in 2021.

More African developers are getting full-time jobs due to both the rise in demand from local startups, and the global demand for remote technical talent.

The report shows that the pool of professional developers increased 3.8 percent to 716,000, making up 0.4 percent of the continent’s non-agricultural workforce. Compensation also rose, and more developers secured full-time jobs.

Three main factors across the tech ecosystem contributed to this positive trend: Local startups, which hire over half of African developers, raised over $4 billion in 2021, which is 2.5 times more than in 2020, with fintech startups making up over half of this funding.

International companies are now recruiting African developers at record rates and pay for senior talent has also risen. Software developer compensation rose by an average of 11 percent in 2021.

On the downside, learners, junior developers, as well as underrepresented groups including women, still struggle to make gains. Last year, the gender gap between men developers and women developers widened: with 2.5 percent fewer women developers in the workforce than there were in 2020.

“The majority of African developers are men. The average local developer is seven years younger than their global counterpart and has up to three years of experience,” said the report. “Only 15 percent are women.”

The women were also found to have 1.3 times fewer years of professional experience than their male counterparts.

Nigeria’s professional developer population had the largest magnitude growth of any African country during this time, with an estimated 5,000 new professional software developers in 2021.

The study was conducted in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, South Africa, Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia.

Struggle for funding

South Africa has the largest developer population, investment in leading technologies, strong education, and robust startup and technology ecosystem dominated by larger companies, while Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt are described as advancing as fast followers.

“About 81 percent of venture capital funding in Africa went to the top four countries (South Africa Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt) with the highest population of software developers,” said the report.

Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt are said to be hotspots for startup investment, while the countries at the bottom tier struggle to find funding despite being critical employers for developers.

These “advancing countries” Nigeria ($307 million) and Kenya ($305 million), secured more funding than ever in 2020, and this success has allowed their startup ecosystems to grow faster than ever and take advantage of digital transformation spurred by the pandemic.

Rwanda, Ghana and Morocco are “cultivating, fostering landscape for growth with moderate-to-large developer population and mid-late-stage startups and technology ecosystem.”

Ghana leads the “cultivating” countries tier with a strong inflow of $111 million as it emerges as an attractive tech market for leaders like Google and Twitter who set up offices there. Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia are said to be in nascent developmental stages.