For over 10+years, I worked with many offshore developers based around the world, from USA, Europe and India , with India being the largest provider of offshore service providers. Every reign has its benefits. USA provided great developers but at a high cost, and the staff came with a lot of complicated employee rights. Europe was also good but the price was also a little high.
India seemed a great option for most of the companies I worked for. Staff cost was a lot lower, which allowed us to rapidly grow the team. However, the outcome was often questionable, and the time difference was a major issue for many of our clients. This prompted organizations to look elsewhere and into Africa particularly.
Why Global Organizations Offshore to Africa?
Youthful Population
Africa is the world’s youngest continent with a median age of about 18 years. This large population of young, working-age people creates a pool of potential employees who are agile and can adapt to the demands of 21st-century technology.
But not only does Africa have a young population, conversely, the world’s largest economies have an ageing population problem as well. Take, for instance, Germany and Japan with a median age above 47years! So it is easy to see that for such economies to maintain their scale of commerce, it would need some help, which is where Africa comes in. I suppose the fact that Africa was late in adopting technology, is now an advantage to her.
Low cost of operation
The tech industry in Africa as a whole is booming, with the likes of Andela and Decagon training young people at grass root level and then outsourcing the dev to oversee the companies offshore.
Now, with the move to more people working from home, companies are rethinking if they really need to pay the high salary demanded in the USA, when they can have the same level of skilled remote staff in Africa. Ultimately companies are set up to make profit, and if they can reduce the overheads, they will take it, and Africa is offering them just that.
Time Zone Advantage
Earlier I stated that India’s biggest challenge was the time difference, which impacted communication greatly, thus prompting the move to Africa.
Africa’s time zone is well-positioned for engaging clients and other global business needs in real-time and round the clock.
For example, Africa and Europe lie along similar latitudes and, therefore, share similar time zones. This affords global offshoring companies the opportunity of having remote employees who can engage in real-time. One advantage of this is that should there be a problem that requires a solution immediately, European businesses could easily count on African talent to resolve these in due time.
In my opinion this move to Africa might last longer than it is expected if for any reason, the time zone and cost of operation. Which business do you know that wouldn’t want to save cost and optimize operation?
eSoft Response is a Uk based Software Development company with offices across Africa. We specialise in bespoke mobile and software development. We have specialist mobile and software developers with a joint experience of over 30 years.
We support many clients globally, helping them to scale up their current or non-existent tech products. As much of our team is offshore, we are able to save clients up to 40% of usual development costs without compromising on quality. Why not arrange a time to speak with our development team to see how much we can save you on development?