Africa is the largest free trade market with an appreciable development rate and a young population. The availability of digital resources and rising entrepreneurial culture are supporting the movement. The continent has become a prolific place for investors and businesses to start their ventures. Thus, the hiring need for African talent serves as a crucial statistic to watch for.
The below text contains a comprehensive analysis of Africa’s hiring dynamics. We have collected the statistics from 657 companies in around 12 sectors. These analytics bring out a clear picture of African talent and its demands. It might help overseas businesses in understanding the process of remote hiring in Africa.
Which sectors produce the highest number of jobs in Africa?
Pandemic has brought a paradigm shift in the behavior of the African population as they adapted to the digital boom swiftly. The increasing internet penetration promotes various sectors to operate online.
In the tech ecosystem, the continent witnessed the highest number of start-ups in the fintech space. After realizing the immense potential of Africans, many international companies have thought to hire a Remote Team in Africa. Africa’s fintech sector contains 188 companies that contribute to 599 employment opportunities. Since the sector is growing rapidly, the job openings are highest in this sector.
The Logistics & Transport industry of the continent produces the second-highest number of jobs. It is then followed by ‘Energy & Water’, ‘Retail’, and ‘Healthcare’ sectors. It is surprising to note that both the ‘Energy and Water’ and ‘Healthcare’ sector have 63 companies each. But the employment opportunities are more in the former one. Healthcare companies had 20 job openings less than the Energy and Water corporations.
The job numbers determine the major skill set of the professional population of the region. A large portion of youth tends to acquire skills in a similar domain as it guarantees growth and job security. According to statistics, ‘Fintech’ and ‘Logistics and transport’ are the most lucrative sectors for hiring in Africa.
Profile Based Job openings
The advancement of technology creates a large scope for developers around the world. But African companies have the highest need for sales and marketing professionals in every sector. Nearly 35% of total African corporations want to hire proficient sales and marketing talent. Nonetheless, software developers have the fifth-highest demand with 111 companies offering the jobs.
Africa’s start-up ecosystem has picked up the pace recently. So, it will take significant time for the demand for software developers to rise. Be it tech or non-tech, businesses need proficient sales and marketing teams to sell their product. Therefore, 232 out of 657 companies are looking to hire professionals for the same domain. It is a good indication for entry-level job-seekers to choose the domain such that the job demand stays consistent over a particular time period.
On the second and third spots, we have product managers and product owners with 151 and 141 companies looking for them. These two categories combined, have 134 jobs in the top two sectors of employment- Fintech and Transport and Logistics. Overseas businesses also plan to hire project managers in Africa amidst this growing demand.
The fourth most in-demand job openings arise for the role of Business Intelligence Developers. 20% of companies are looking for these professionals who can make the right decisions and meet business goals.
Talent Demand in African Fintech
In this section, we take a close look at the talent requirements of the Fintech sector. Investments are consistently pouring into the sector. Presently, it comprises 188 companies and produces 32% of jobs alone. These companies have a huge demand for tech professionals to develop the latest technical solutions. They also give rise to the category of remote jobs software developers.
Following is a list of the most sought-after professionals in the fintech industry:
- Sales and Marketing
The most in-demand job profile across the continent is trending in the fintech space also. Besides the passion for technology, these companies thrive to sustain their presence amongst the consumers. The market is slowly becoming diverse and the competition is increasing every day. Thus, hiring quality talent in the sales and marketing domain becomes a necessity for fintech companies.
- Business Intelligence (BI) Developer
Tech-enabled businesses have an edge over conventional businesses due to data. Data helps them analyze the roadmap and future goals to take the business forward. A BI developer is someone responsible for developing interfaces that generate credible business reports. These reports come from analyzing raw data available to the company. The insights collected from the reports determine the weak and strong areas for a company to work upon. With more customers coming on board, fintech companies need BI developers to make a formulated course of action.
- Software Developer
Websites and software tools serve as an important component of fintech businesses. Though, software engineering job numbers rank third in the fintech space. But they are expected to overcome other job profiles in the upcoming times. According to Africa Developer Ecosystem 2021 report, there are 716,000 developers residing on the continent. So, the consistency in the flow of tech talent will not be a major problem.
- Product Manager
Product managers seem to have a technopreneur mindset as they act as a connecting link between product and customer requirements. In the case of fintech, there exists a large user base that gives rise to lots of feedback and iterations in the product. Thus, companies appoint product managers to understand the customer requirements and implement the changes accordingly. Product managers usually stay at the top of the hierarchy and manage a group of professionals; hence the job numbers are less in comparison to others. Product manager hirings account for 8% of the total fintech job opportunities. Due to the proficiency levels, international start-ups and Multi-National Corporations (MNCs) remotely hire project managers in Africa.
- Product Owner
After product managers, there comes a dire need for product owners. They take care of the product and ensure that all the technical requirements are met consistently. Product owners have the fifth-highest demand in the fintech space. Product owners have a strong technical background and head multiple teams during the product development lifecycle process.
