• Africa posts fastest growth in developers globally at 21% annually

• Total developer base remains small compared to other regions

• Tunisia, Kenya, and Morocco stand out as leading tech hubs

Africa emerged as one of the fastest-growing sources of software developers globally, even as it continues to lag behind other regions in absolute numbers, a report published March 24 by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) showed.

Titled “Develop the Developers: A Strategic Priority for Africa,” the report shows that the number of software developers on the continent grew by an average of 21% per year between 2019 and 2024. This is the highest growth rate worldwide, ahead of Asia (16.6%), Latin America (19.8%), Europe (11.3%), North America (9.2%), and Oceania (2.2%).

Despite this rapid expansion, Africa’s total developer base remains relatively small. The continent counted about 4.7 million developers, compared with 73.9 million in Asia, 27.5 million in Europe, 24 million in North America, 8.3 million in Latin America, and 2.2 million in Oceania.

The report draws mainly on data from GitHub and defines “developers” broadly, including not only professional software engineers but also students, researchers, and self-taught individuals actively involved in coding and software creation.

Across Africa, the strength of developer communities is often measured by the number of developers per 1,000 people, an indicator of coding intensity. On this metric, disparities are significant. Nigeria, for instance, despite having a population of about 237.5 million in 2025, has fewer developers per 1,000 people than Kenya, whose population stands at about 57.5 million.

Regional leaders emerge

Differences between countries are driven by factors such as digital policy choices, education system performance, the presence of tech hubs, and Internet penetration. While South Africa, Egypt, and Nigeria have the largest absolute number of developers—each exceeding 500,000—countries like Ethiopia and Angola recorded the fastest growth between 2019 and 2024, starting from a lower base.

Tunisia, Kenya, and Morocco stand out as leading regional tech hubs, combining both scale and growth. Morocco has a strong developer base in both size and density, though it lags in the share of female developers. In 2024, women accounted for less than 12% of developers in Morocco, a level similar to Egypt.

Tunisia leads the continent in female participation, with women representing 24% of developers and showing the strongest growth trajectory between 2015 and 2024, ahead of Rwanda, Nigeria, and Kenya.

The report also highlights a clear link between the number of developers and scientific output. Morocco and Egypt, which have the highest number of developers per 1,000 people in Africa, also recorded the highest number of scientific publications in 2020. This suggests that strong developer communities are associated with more robust research ecosystems and greater innovation capacity.

As software development and artificial intelligence (AI) become central to digital competitiveness and long-term economic growth, the report notes that most African developers specializing in AI, machine learning (ML), and data science (DS) are concentrated in North Africa and Kenya. While the continental average for such specialization is 13.9%, it ranges between 15% and 20% in countries such as Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, and Kenya.

This concentration reflects targeted policies aimed at strengthening STEM education, improving language skills, and leveraging strong university and research infrastructure.

Walid Kéfi